12 swimmers, 6 basketball teams, 3 tennis players, and 2 individual skills athletes represented Philadelphia at the 2017 Eastern Spring Sectional on Saturday, May 6th at Kutztown University. They joined athletes from Area P, Bethlehem City, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Chester, Columbia/Montour, Delaware, Lancaster, Lebanon, Lehigh, Luzerne, Monroe, Northumberland/Snyder, Montgomery, and Schuylkill. The total number of athletes at this event was 1150 across six different sports!  With the theme of “Under the Big Top” our athletes performed on the court and in the pool. Although there weren’t any elephants or tigers, our athletes gave wonderful performances in each of their events. 

Things got started at 9:00 am with clouds looming overhead signaling a rainy day, but the rain held off, even though it pushed Opening Ceremonies indoors. Although everyone was indoors for Opening Ceremonies, the gymnasium was loud with excitement. Rebecca Konen from KutzTones, Kutztown University’s a cappella group sang the national anthem. Kutztown University’s Cheerleading team escorted athletes during the Parade of Athletes. Kutztown University President, Dr. Kenneth Hawkinson, spoke words of encouragement and pride that his school hosts the Eastern Spring Sectionals before wishing athletes the best of luck. Kutztown Dance Team performed for our athletes and it got the crowd energized for the competition that would soon follow. After their performance, the games were declared open and everyone scattered to see what the big top had in store!

After preliminary competitions, our basketball teams found out their course – and it gave them a welcomed challenge. In their final games, they were able to show off the skills they had been working on and captured a spot on the podium. In the pool, there were some close races as our athletes sprinted down the pool and paced themselves in the longer distances. On the tennis courts, one of our athletes showed off their individual skills in the forehand volley, backhand volley, forehand groundstroke, backhand groundstroke, serve – deuce court, serve ad court, and alternating strokes with movement. 

#SOPASpringEast

Results

Aquatics

Basketball

Individual Skills

Jason Sobrinno

Teams

Tennis

INDIVIDUAL SKILLS

Shawn Moton

Doubles

Elijah Williams & Christopher Newton

Frances Moore from our Philadelphia program has been recognized as a Special Olympics North America (SONA) 2015 Coach of the Year Finalist.The SONA Coach of the Year Award is given annually to a Special Olympics coach who has made a significant and demonstrable impact on local Special Olympics Programs and their communities.

As a Coach-of-the-Year recipient, Fran is in the company of the region’s finest coaches – true leaders and dedicated coaches who serve as role models to other coaches, inside and outside of Special Olympics. She has positively impacted athletes, family members and the community. We are grateful for her hard work, applaud her high standards of excellence, and admire her generosity of heart. Fran is now considered among SONA’s Coaching Dream Team that consists of 16 additional finalists and the Coach of the Year, Tom Norton from Canada.

About Frances (Fran) Moore

Fran Moore pictured at center with SOPA Board Chairman Greg Stewart and President & CEO Matt Aaron, receiving her 2015 Coach of the Year Award during the Annual Leadership Conference.

Fran is an inspirational person with an enthusiastic attitude. Since she started volunteering for Special Olympics PA – Philadelphia a decade ago, she has served on the Management Team where she held the Family Coordinator position. Within that position, Fran lead the charge to solicit athlete input and take their feedback into consideration in all aspects of Special Olympics programming.

She believes that all athletes have a voice and should be heard. That is why she also serves as a mentor for her daughter Katie Moore, who is a Global Messenger. Through Fran’s efforts, four athletes now serve as mentors to their fellow teammates; and she has encouraged and mentored three other former aquatics athletes.

Fran is currently certified in soccer and aquatics where she trains over 100 athletes each week and dedicates every weekend to coach. As a physical therapist, Fran knows that eating healthy, training, and proper stretching are the keys to being a healthy athlete. She encourages her athletes to eat healthy and teaches them proper techniques to stretching before and after practices.

In addition to her commitment to our current athletes, families and volunteers, Fran is always in search of new coaches. Over the past several years, Fran has recruited more than 10 coaches to assist at aquatics trainings.

Fran has positively impacted the entire Philadelphia program, as evidenced by her receiving the 2015 Special Olympics Pennsylvania Coach of the Year Award.

Last night, at the Special Olympics Pennsylvania’s Leadership Conference, individuals were recognized for their achievements within Special Olympics PA throughout the year during the annual awards banquet. Awards include Athlete of the Year, Partner of the Year, Program of the Year, etc. During this banquet, Philadelphia Beginner Swim Coach, Fran Moore named SOPA Coach of the Year! Fran has served as Aquatics Head Coach for 6 years.  Every year she challenges the athletes (beginner to advanced) to step out of their comfort zone and try a new event. Over the years under Fran’s supervision and dedication we have had many athletes who started with no basic knowledge of swimming now be able to accomplish the breaststroke, backstroke, IM’s and even 800 meter freestyles.  Fran is like a second mother to all the athletes.  She listens when they have problems or need someone to listen. She reviews the Athlete Code of Conduct at least 4 times a season to ensure they know the rules and support one another in good sportsmanship. 

Congratulations, Fran! We’re so lucky to have you as part of our Special Olympics Philadelphia family! 

Click here for Special Olympics Pennsylvania’s recap of this year’s Leadership Conference Award Banquet as well as photos of all the winners!