Desert Stars Medal At Golf Skills Event

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

Five members of the Desert Stars special Olympics team in Mesquite travelled to Las Vegas for a golf skills tournament on Saturday, November 19. They came away from the event with four gold medals and a silver medal. The gold medal winners were Jeremy Murray, Samantha Aslin, Dan Aslin and Jered Naccarato. Winning a silver medal was Eric Milledge.

The event was held at the Angel Park Golf Course in Las Vegas. The local team faced off against athletes from throughout the region in several contests displaying an array of golf skills. These contests included short puts, long puts, long drives with woods, long drive with irons, pitching and chipping.

“It was the very first year that we had a team compete in this event,” said local Special Olympics coordinator Jan Aslin. “We did very well. I think we surprised a lot of people.”
Aslin went along with the team to the tournament as an assistant coach. Also assisting was Jim Murray.

The team’s head coach was Cathy Sheetz.
Aslin said that the team had spent several weeks in practicing for this contest event. “We were hosted by the Oasis course in our practice time,” she said. “They really helped us out and accommodated us in our practices.”

This event seemed to whet the appetite of a couple of the team members for golf. Aslin said that two members of the local team plan to move up to a 9-hole alternate-shot tournament which will be held in the upcoming weeks.

An alternate-shot tournament is when a special Olympics player is paired with a non-disabled partner to play a 9-hole course. “They team up and alternate shots throughout the tournament,” Aslin said. “It seems like it will be a great experience.”

For more information about upcoming special Olympics programs go to sonv.org.