The Inaugural Special Olympics New York City Regional Softball Tournament at Padavan & Preller Field in Queens, NY on Saturday, September 23 was filled with a day of exciting games, as each borough competed against one another for the gold medal. The New York Mets film crew was in attendance to film the games. Footage from the tournament was shown at the New York Mets game on September 24. Mr. Met kept the athletes pumped up and the fans enthused.
In the last inning of the gold medal game (Staten Island vs. Manhattan), Staten Island had the lead and Manhattan almost made a comeback. The score was 14 to 8 and Manhattan scored 3 runs in the bottom inning, but they fell short. The final score was 14-11.
1st: Staten Island, Renegades
2nd: Manhattan, Wildcats
3rd: Queens, Hope House All-Stars
4th: Bronx, Bronx Bombers
5th: Brooklyn, Brooklyn Limers
The New York City Region thanks everyone for making our Inaugural New York City Regional Softball Tournament a success. We want to give special thanks to: Lenny Wilkins, our Sports Director for the day, for all of his hard work organizing the event; Kenny Conyers and Padavan & Preller Field for the donation of the field and support for Special Olympics; Senator Frank Padavan, Jill Knee, and the NY Mets for their involvement and support; the Knights of Columbus for their diligent and attentive volunteers; and all the Special Olympics staff, volunteers, and families for their time and effort in making this event a success. We want to send special thanks out to the coaches, Phil Navarette, Marilyn Best, Cindy Biddle, Terrence Murray, Richard Addison, Garrett Hodges, Jerry Mazzerella, Greg Kovar, Camille Maroncielli, Timmy Taylor, and Florence Singleton, who, with enthusiasm and passion, made this day possible. As we look forward to the future, we are thankful and excited to have such a wholehearted force involved in upcoming events! And congratulations to our outstanding athletes for achieving so much during the tournament – these were very tight games!
Photographs to come!
