A father, who manages an INEOS plant in Texas, has been helping children to aim high for years. And 2012 will be no exception for Bob Bradshaw.
This year he is coaching four Special Olympics basketball teams of players aged between 12 and 20 – and if the last three years are anything to go by, there could be a few more gold medals on the horizon for one or two of his teams.
But what’s also special about his players is that despite all suffering from intellectual difficulties, they all have a tremendous desire to learn.
“Watching them develop skills and become part of something bigger than themselves is so very rewarding,” he said.
Bob, who manages the battleground manufacturing complex in La Porte, Texas, decided to first help coach Special Olympics athletes in the late 1980s – almost 20 years after attending his very first Special Olympics at Soldier Field in Chicago.
“The experience of seeing those athletes and their joy in competing never really left me,” he said.
Initially he coached volleyball, basketball and track events in Chicago for two years but gave it up when his two older children were born. The family then moved to Houston and in 1993 their youngest son Sammy was born.
As fate would have it, Sammy was born with a special need himself. He had Down’s Syndrome.
When Sammy was eight, though, Bob decided it was time to play ball again. And he has not looked back.
Over the past 11 years he has been teaching Special Olympians volleyball, softball, swimming and basketball.
His passion, though, is – and always will be – basketball.
“There are not many opportunities for these kids to be part of a team in any other setting,” he said. “To afford them that opportunity is so rewarding.”
There are now four million Special Olympians in 170 countries. The winners of the local trials compete in regional heats for a place in the national finals.
The very best then meet at the World Games. The next summer World Games will be held in Korea in 2014.