The Center Moriches Unified Top Golf program recently finished in their final competition.
Special Olympics New York provides year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-style sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities.
In the Unified sports program, students with and without intellectual disabilities will train and compete together as Unified pairs in the Special Olympics sport of Topgolf.
The second-annual Unified Top Golf program included 11 Long Island school districts in the season. Athletes and Unified partners trained for eight weeks at Topgolf›s Holtsville location to develop their golf skills.
The season concluded with a final tournament on Thursday, Feb. 13, with over 175 students competing and going for gold!
In the final competition results, Center Moriches students Megan Nguyen won first place in singles; Courtney Underwood and Erin Baldock, Cole Weigand and Logan Weigand, and Lea Underwood and Casey Ennis all took first; Philip Bechtold and Michael Langhorn took second; Molly Pantol and Peter Nizza took fourth; and Ryan Bacon and Nolan Tenety took fifth, all in the doubles divisions.
In the C.M. District alone, 16 students participated—eight athletes with eight partners, including a pair of brothers training as a team to compete. The team also included seven Special Olympic-certified coaches and support staff consisting of four paraprofessionals.
Teachers involved in the program include LisaAnn Zlatniski, the program’s golf coach and high school physical education teacher; Katie Ross, the C.M. middle school and high school health and physical education teacher and assistant top golf coach; and Tracy Sigerson, the high school special education teacher, who also helps coach as an assistant.
“Athletes practiced with their assigned partners weekly in a setting in which they could thrive; designed to help them succeed emotionally, socially, and physically,” said Zlatniski, proud of the team’s accomplishments.
The Center Moriches team trained on Wednesdays, one day a week, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at TopGolf in Holtsville.
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