Dallas ISD Special Olympics Bowling Gives Students Chance to Play Sports

The school buses in the parking lot of USA Bowl Wednesday morning weren’t there for a field trip. They brought students to team practice.

“Some of them have never bowled,” said Dallas ISD teacher Pam Wurster. “They’re just excited about doing a sport.”

Dallas ISD’s Special Olympics Bowling program started practice this week. About 530 students are participating.

“If it wasn’t for Special Olympics, a lot of these kids would not be able to do any sport at all,” Wurster said. “Because they wouldn’t make it on the regular teams.”

The Special Olympics started in 1968 as a way for people with intellectual disabilities or delays to participate in sports, and shine.

“It’s fun,” seventh grader Keyshawn Duke-McCoy said. “It makes me happy.”

“It calms me down in, like, a happy way,” sixth grader Nai’envy Guerrero-Jackson said. “Because I’m very focused on it.”

Nearly all the lanes at USA Bowl were filled with students practicing their sport, cheering with each pin that fell.

“They’re just excited,” Wurster said. “They feel good about themselves. Even the ones that got gutter balls, they still feel good about themselves.”

The students might know better than most: It’s not how many times you fall. It’s how many times you get back up.

“My kids don’t give up,” Wurster said. “They just keep trying.”

Dallas ISD Special Olympics Bowling has a local competition coming up in November against other DFW-area teams.