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Multi-sport athlete Kiondre Brown nonetheless tears up concerning the day his unified flag soccer crew dumped water throughout him throughout an interview after profitable a bronze medal on the 2022 Special Olympics USA Games.
Four years later, Brown arrived on the video games once more Thursday as a member of the Alachua All Stars, a unified basketball crew, competing on the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games in Minneapolis.
Special Olympics Florida supplies year-round Olympic-type sports activities coaching and competitors for folks with mental disabilities, aiming to assist them turn out to be productive members of society by offering the athletes a possibility to develop and display their expertise, in response to their mission statement.
Brown, 29, nears 12 years with this system and may’t think about his life with out it.
“This is my community,” Brown stated. “There’s loads of issues [for] folks [to be] pleased with. The expertise with the Special Olympics program means one thing to you.
“When I was 17 years old, I didn’t think this was going [to] carry my legacy, but now I know it. There’s been a lot of people that look up to me [since] then. ”
Consisting of 4 unified companions, University of Florida college students or latest graduates, and 6 native Special Olympics athletes, the crew certified after taking house gold of their division on the 2024 State Summer Games.
The Special Olympics USA Games options packages from throughout the nation, competing in 16 sports activities.
“It gives our athletes a place where they can shine, where they’re away from the fear of discrimination and just to where their abilities are celebrated,” stated Evan Combs, the senior supervisor sports activities coaching and competitors for the Northeast area. “This is super important to their lives; it provides meaningful friendships.”
The crew takes the courtroom Monday towards Team Indiana, then faces Maryland on Tuesday and Texas on Wednesday. Ahead of competitors, the All Stars practiced each week for 2 hours since January, engaged on performs and crew chemistry.
They enter Minneapolis with the intention of profitable, however place emphasis on constructing new connections. Coach Jordyn Zyngier and her teaching employees made bingo playing cards with duties that encourage the gamers to exit of their consolation zones.
“I’m hoping this inspires them and incentivizes them to get out and try new things, meet new people, take new pictures, make new memories and come home with stories that don’t involve people that they practice and play the same sports with,” Zyngier stated.
During the UF Intramural season that started in March, the Alachua All Stars performed towards teams of volunteers to problem themselves. The crew additionally participated in regional and state video games.
Across the season, Ethan Faerman, a unified accomplice and the incoming UF Special Olympics membership president, observed gamers rising nearer and competing as a crew as a substitute of individually with athletes like Brown and his teammate Willard Riley Jr. stepping up as leaders.
“Everyone just wanted to play basketball by themselves but as we’ve gotten to the practice this week, everyone’s loud, everyone’s cheering each other on and everyone’s playing good defense and communicating,” Faerman stated.
Brown joined the group at 17 years outdated by the Sidney Lanier Center. Apart from basketball Brown competed in golf, volleyball and monitor and subject occasions. In 2023, underneath Combs’ lead, Kiondre’s basketball crew represented Team USA on the 2023 Special Olympics World Games in Berlin.
With expertise at massive occasions, Brown enjoys providing teammates steering.
“I’m just going to show them the direction,” Brown stated. “It just reminds me of 2022 and 2023, when you’re a leader at the Special Olympics you’re going to tell your team everything is going to be all right. Everything doesn’t go your way. ”
After serving as an assistant coach in 2025, Zyngier stepped into the pinnacle coach function this season. Zyngier started volunteering with Special Olympics over a decade in the past whereas rising up in Michigan, however wished to proceed her journey when she moved to work at UF Health.
She performed basketball in center and highschool, so instructing gamers fundamentals got here naturally, however the All Stars’ high-level taking part in skill impressed her to implement new performs and techniques on the courtroom. When Combs initially approached her with the teaching alternative, she wanted a push to tackle the bigger function.
“He definitely pushed me [like] that’s too bad this is the opportunity that I have so take it or leave it,” Zyngier stated. “I’m really glad he did because it allowed me to be a part of this and it put me into the shoes that now have me walking myself into an airplane to go to USA games.”
Combs began in Zyngier’s place, teaching Brown’s basketball and soccer groups from 2019 to 2023 earlier than becoming a member of Special Olympics employees. At 12 years outdated, he volunteered at his first Special Olympics occasion and continued all through highschool, however obtained extra concerned with the unified program by the UF membership. The neighborhood stands proud to Combs as a result of it serves as a spot for folks of all talent ranges.
“Our unified sports program is super important because not only are Special Olympics athletes being meaningfully included in sport and dealing with people without disabilities, but our unified partners that come in, learn that there’s a lot more that makes us similar than what makes us different,” Combs stated. “When you see a team like Kiondre’s basketball team out there, you can’t really tell who’s a Special Olympics athlete, who might have a disability, and who’s a unified partner, who doesn’t.”
Combs coached Brown on the 2023 NIRSA Collegiate Unified Nationals on the University of Maryland, the place Brown gained match Most Valuable Player after averaging 27 factors per sport throughout 5 video games. Combs all the time seen Brown as a standout athlete, however values Brown’s private development extra, watching him develop socially and step up as a pacesetter.
Brown began working at Subway seven years in the past and mows lawns through the week whereas staying liable for dropping his niece and nephews to high school on a regular basis. He constructed many significant relationships by this system however is very grateful for the connection he developed with Combs.
“I met this dude seven years [ago] and he saved [me] so I would say thank you to him,” Brown stated. “He was my first actual friend because he’s like the best bro I’ve ever had.”
Many crew members have deep roots throughout the neighborhood. Faerman spent most of his childhood volunteering with Special Olympics due to his older sister, who has Down syndrome.
Zyngier grew up alongside Special Olympics athletes after assembly her finest pal, who has autism, in second grade. Throughout center and highschool, Zyngier labored with college students in cognitively impaired school rooms by a finest buddies program. With Special Olympics being a cornerstone of her life, she finds it onerous to carry again tears on the massive occasions.
“My athletes make fun of me all the time because I am such a crier,” Zyngier stated. “The ceremonies at ESPN, they’ve obtained fireworks and individuals are singing, dancing and lifting one another up. You simply see this unbelievable community of inclusion, and I cry each single time as a result of it’s simply so highly effective.
“My athletes have already said, ‘I want to make sure I sit by you during the ceremony so I can take a video when you’re crying.’”
Brown doesn’t intend to cease taking part in anytime quickly, and stays grateful for the group’s affect on his life.
“[Through] this program my life has changed,” Brown stated. “It made me a better person.”
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