Our Champion!

This past Thursday was the annual Tournament of Champions that McDaniel hosts. We invite schools with special needs programs from all around the county to bring their students on campus for a day of fun, games, foods and medals. This year there were about 90 participants and just about the same amount of student athletes from McDaniel. Each athlete is matched up with a child with a special need and they are "buddies" for the day. Each McDaniel athlete wears a shirt, practice uniform, pinny, etc to represent their sport. In addition to being a buddy, you can also be in charge of the different stations. There is baseball, basketball shooting, bowling, bean bag toss, scooter races, lacrosse shooting, golf and so much more.

Our own Ellen Nicely graced the cover of the Carroll County Times with an adorable picture of her congratulating a participant on the bean bag toss. So cute!! Though, this was not her buddy, Ellen was running the bean bag toss station and took a liking to this little boy when he started to play. I saw him around all day and he was the cutest thing.

Ellen is a sophomore on the team and a two sport athlete, also playing soccer. She is actually wearing a soccer shirt in this picture, but I can get over that . She plays in a defensive midi position and has come up with some important caused turnovers already this season. She defines herself as just plain "awkward" which I think a lot of the team would agree with, but in the best and funniest way possible. She can make you laugh in an instant and you won't stop laughing for a while. She is a vital member of our team and everyone is very proud that she is the one representing McDaniel on the cover of Carroll County Newspaper! Congratulations Ellen!!

*Credit for the picture goes to the Carroll County Times*