Sauk Valley Special Olympics teams shoot to compete in regional competition

DIXON – Twelve basketball teams are hard at work running their plays as they prepare to compete Jan. 26 in the Illinois Special Olympics regional competition at Byron High School.

The teams – from several schools and agencies in Dixon, Whiteside County, Freeport, Belvidere and Winnebago County – must compete in three practice games to qualify for the regional tournament, where the winning teams will move on to compete at the state level in March. On Sunday, Dec. 8, the teams checked off their first two games during a practice tournament held at the Dixon Park District indoor basketball courts.

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Mike, a Mabley Center Lighting basketball team member, practices his shot Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024, at The Facility in Dixon. The team, along with several others in the area, will hit the court in January for a chance to compete in the Special Olympics state tournament. (Alex T. Paschal)

Steve Caudillo, a Jack Mabley Developmental Center retiree, started hosting the practice tournament about six years ago for area Special Olympics basketball teams.

“It was kind of tough to get games scheduled, so I figured if we had it in the tournament type of style, you could at least get two games in,” Caudillo said in an interview with Shaw Local.

Each team played two games for a total of 24 games.

The tournament is run entirely by volunteers. Caudillo takes on the role of director, and scorekeepers run the scoreboard. Five certified Illinois High School Association referees – Steve Beiser, Jim Jecklin, Troy Stockton, Richard Humphrey and Theresa Mekeel – made sure the games ran safely, Caudillo said.

“In this day and age, referees are hard to secure because there’s not many of them, and those that are out there, they are working a lot of games,” he said. “I’ve had the same refs who have helped the last six years. They’ve made a commitment to help us every year.”

As for the teams – which come from Jack Mabley Developmental Center, Kreider Services, Self Help Enterprises Inc., Rockford Special Olympics, Bi-County Special Education Cooperative, the Freeport Park District, Hononegah High School in Rockton and Belvidere Park District – some have changed over the years.

For instance, at Bi-County, its basketball program is offered to youths ages 8 and older who attend Bi-County member schools in Whiteside County. Its team, the Bulldogs, has two returning players from the previous year and nine newcomers, coach Mandi Roggy of Morrison said in an interview with Shaw Local.

This is the second year that the Bulldogs are competing as a team. During its first year, the team made it to the state tournament and took home second place, Roggy said.

Roggy has been a coach with Bi-County for eight years. Her daughter, Emily Roggy, became a coach about three years ago, and her fiance, Jess Hurley, started coaching two years ago, she said.

For the 2024-25 season, the three of them created a second team known as the All Star Twisters.

“We created Twisters for those who have aged out of the Bi-County program or that were never in the program to give them a chance to play due to not having very many teams in the area,” Mandi Roggy said. “The Bulldogs from last year wanted to play again together this year. So we had to create a new team so they could do that.”

The Twisters is made up of last year’s Bulldogs players and one newcomer, she said.

“This mini tournament is kind of a good warmup for the players, but also a good warmup for the coaches to prepare for competition,” Caudillo said. “It kind of gives them an idea, ‘OK, we need to start working on these types of things for the tournament.’”