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Student-athletes from each school within the Putnam County Charter School System wore matching color event t-shirts, with the team from Putnam County Elementary decked out in white. -
Happy faces were plentiful during the War Eagle Games, among competitors and spectators alike. -
Putnam County High School student-athletes were eager to discuss their War Eagle Games experiences amongst themselves. -
Student-athletes from Putnam County Primary School stood out under the bright sunshine in their yellow War Eagle Games t-shirts. -
Medals were awarded to each studentathlete at the inaugural War Eagle Games in Eatonton.
Students from all four Putnam County Charter School System schools were at the sports stadium behind the middle school last Friday to participate in the inaugural War Eagle Games, designed specifically for differently abled athletes.
“It’s an initiative that we started up this year with Putnam County Charter Schools and really led by our special education director, Tierra Bowen. She wanted to do this, so we jumped on board along with all the special-ed faculty, the special education teachers, and Dr. Mollie Jones, who is new to the district this year,” explained Roger Parham, a past baseball and softball coach who now provides adaptive physical education to the Putnam system’s special needs students. “So, Mollie and I kind of jumped into this and we’re really excited about getting to showcase these wonderful, wonderful students.”
Jones explained that starting the War Eagle Games was the first step toward possibly securing Special Olympics status in the future.
She said extensive paperwork is required just to get state Special Olympics recognition and that is well underway.
“So, we’re still finishing out the paperwork, but we had all our kids get physicals for this and we started the actual planning process,” said Jones, a phys-ed teacher at the high school, as well as a softball and track coach. “The goal is to eventually move to state Special Olympics, too, which would take the kids overnight to different places at the middle school and high school levels. But they have to have their physicals for that, so we just went ahead with those already.”
Parham said the War Eagle Games represented a natural extension of his daily 40-minute visits each day to each Putnam County chartered school.
“I start at the primary, go from there to the high school, then to the middle, then to elementary. So, each one of our special-needs students gets health and physical education every day they’re at school,” he explained. “And every kid I service, it’s based on their personal physical abilities and needs. I’ve got kids in wheelchairs that are non-ambulatory all the way up to kids that you would look at and think they don’t look like a special-needs kid at all, so it’s all ranges and they’re all just awesome students.”
Several Putnam County High School football players and cheerleaders also were on hand as volunteers to help competitors perform their best on the same field they compete on each season. The War Eagle Games involved 56 Putnam County student-athletes in five field events and three running events, with each catered to the needs and abilities of the specific student populations.
“For example, we have the simulated shot put, which is going to be a tennis ball throw. We’ll have the javelin, but that’ll be a pool noodle throw." Parham said. "We’ll have the discus, but that’ll be a foam Frisbee throw. And we’ll do the standing broad jump and the running long jump.”
On the track, students competed in a 50-meter run/walk, a 100-meter run/walk, and a modified marathon, represented by one lap around the track.
Primary and elementary students competed together, as did middle and high schoolers at the War Eagle Games. Students received ribbons for first- through third-place finishes in each event entered, with everyone also receiving a medal to commemorate the experience.
Putnam County Charter School System Superintendent Eric Arena said he felt the War Eagle Games provided the opportunity, not only for Putnam special-needs students and their families, but for the community at large.
“These students oftentimes have struggles in their day-to-day lives because of their disabilities but this is an example of when we can come together as students and staff and adults and family and cheer for them in an environment where they’re the student-athletes and the center of our attention,” Arena said. “It takes a lot of work to put something on like this, and we’re really blessed to have dedicated professional educators that want to go above and beyond to do it. This is just one example of a group of our educators that wanted to go and do a little bit more for our students and our student-athletes.
“But they see it growing into inviting more student-athletes from different counties and eventually to where it could be a huge community event where we celebrate these student-athletes and we get to cheer them on and be there and celebrate each and every one of them," Arena continued. "So, we’re really excited about this event, but we also are excited about the possibilities of a future involving more of this community and eventually other communities from outside of Putnam County.”