New Dogs of Orange County earned gold in 7 aside soccer at the Special Olympics North Carolina Fall Games in Charlotte. Nearly 1,300 athletes competed in seven sports. Soccer coaches were Mike and Rachel Meyen, Kimberly Powell.
Orange athletes also took medals in cycling, golf. Amanda Gillian Fink won a silver in Cycling 5K time trial, Daniel Weiss gold in cycling 2K, silver in 500m time trial and bronze 1K time trial. Cycling coaches were Jim Fink and Taylor Cole.
Joey Allen Kessler earned a bronze in golf level 4 individual stroke play 9, Ahmad Afab Rohman bronze in golf level 5 individual stroke play 18, Daniel Andrew Ward, unified partner, Richie Cliff Vaughan bronze golf level 2 unified team.
Head golf coach John Kessler was caddie for Joey Kessler, Justin and partner Leo Jarmusz (DAD), Bradley Barnett with partner Rob Robinson, Richie Vaughan with partner David Ward, Trevor Shepard with caddie Corey Barth, Ahmad Rahman with caddie Farhan Rahman.
Orange had a smaller delegation (and fewer medal winners) than previous years due to the schedule.
Coordinator Colleen Lannigan explained, “We sent a very small delegation to Charlotte this year. The timing of the state championship was Thursday through Saturday the weekend before Thanksgiving break (rather than a weekend only earlier in November as in past years). People simply thought the timing was not workable in their family schedules.”