The second of three articles highlighting the seasons of the Marshall 1, Marshall 2 and Marshall 3 Special Olympic Basketball Teams before the state tournament on Mar. 14.
Marshall County Special Olympics Basketball team Marshall 3 is a newly created team in their first season. The Special Olympics program has had two teams the last eight seasons and in the 2018-2019 season, both rosters grew to the 15 player limit. With new athletes coming in for the 2019-2020 season, a third team would have to be created.
“We knew we had to add a team…growth is good…in order to place each athlete correctly three teams is perfect.” Jonny Byrd said. “We took the 4-5 top scorers off of Marshall 1 who was the State B Purple Division Runner-Up and 4-5 athletes who didn’t get to see a lot of playing time on Marshall 2 and we have a middle ability team with 10 athletes.”
Marshall 3 is coached by Noah Steele and assistant coach Hayden Hendley.
“They have done a great job teaching the next level of skills to this team and the athletes have adjusted well”, Byrd said. “Like any team, they have to get used to playing together as a team and after several games they are finally doing that. Marshall 3’s schedule has not been easy, they have played teams in higher divisions more than once.”
“Progress is not wins versus losses to us, it’s how many points did you score versus the last time you played them, and did more players score”, Bryd said. “Getting better is what we teach. As coaches we are supposed to prepare the athlete to compete at the regional and state competitions. That’s the prize! Everything up to the regional is just practice and people get too caught up in winning or losing during the season. It’s about making sure they have seen everything they could see at the regional and state levels.”
Right before the Regional Tournament, Marshall 3 had split 11 games 50-50 the week before getting a win over Murray Gray and going to the Regional Tournament with impressive wins over Bowling Green Force 30-17 and Murray White 19-13 for the Regional Championship.
“Coach Noah and Coach Hayden will have them ready”, Byrd said. “I look forward to seeing them play in their first state tournament as a team.”
Marshall 3 will play Saturday Mar. 14 at 1:00 pm eastern time against the Louisville Cheetahs in the 2020 State Basketball Tournament at MidAmerica Sports Center located at 1906 Watterson Trail in Louisville.