Hancock County Hosting Special Olympics Basketball Tournament

Special Olympics Ohio will host the Northwest Ohio Regional Special Olympics Basketball Tournament in Van Buren on Saturday, February 4th and Sunday, February 5th.

Games will take place in the middle and high school gyms beginning at 8:30 a.m.

The Regional Tournament starts Saturday, consisting of 11 games.

Sunday will see 12 games to decide who will play in the championship rounds.

The championship games will be held at the Bowling Green Community Center on Newton Road on February 12th.

Here, Divisions 3, 4, and 5 will complete their competition.

A total of 34 teams from 26 counties in Northwest Ohio will be participating.

The Special Olympics Ohio basketball season runs October through February.

The State Tournament is held during the first quarter of each year.

Teams must qualify for the State Tournament by placing first in their division in an Approved Regional Qualifying Tournament for the given season.

Individual Skills athletes must qualify for State Individual Skills competition by participating in an approved Regional qualifying skills competition during the given season.

Hancock County Special Olympics will have two teams competing at this Regional Tournament, a Division 3 and Division 5 team.

The Division 3 team is comprised of athletes who have a greater understanding of the fundamentals and know how to run game plays while the Division 5 team has the basic understanding of the game and are more focused on fundamentals of the sport.

Hancock County Special Olympics is coordinated by Melanie Williams through the Blanchard Valley Center – Hancock County Board of Developmental Disabilities.

For more information on this event, contact Adam Warnement, Regional Director at Special Olympics Ohio at 567-208-9119.