Alma College Special Olympics Club

GRACE MAIN
STAFF WRITER

3/10/2025

It’s been an eventful winter for the Alma College Special Olympics Club who recently participated in the Mt. Pleasant Polar Plunge and have been busy with weekly basketball games. 

The club, which has grown since its founding in January of 2023, is part of Special Olympics (SO) College, which brings Special Olympics to college campuses across the nation. The goal of SO is to build relationships between college students and people with intellectual disabilities and to break barriers of social injustice through sports. 

“Theres been a big increase in both members and athletes from when we first started. A couple years ago, we had probably about five members and sometimes one or two athletes show up, and now we have a rotating group of 10 athletes who show up every week and probably 20 members,” said Alex Wathen (‘25), Alma College Special Olympic Club President. 

Every Monday from 7:30-8:30pm, the club meets for a game of basketball and a good time. The athletes and club members arrive and start their warm-ups and shoot around, after which they play lightning and then split up into two teams and compete for the remainder of the time. 

The group have become very close throughout the time the club has been together, building long-term friendships over the past two years. 

“The friends I’ve made and the relationships I have with this college, I’ve been here for seven years,” said Craig Lancaster, Alma College Assistant Football Coach and Special Olympics Athlete. 

“My favorite memories are just hanging out with our people, I mean … Craig Lancaster is one of our athletes, I view him as a brother and he’s one of my best friends, and also we have athletes from pretty much every sport as a part of our club, so it brings a big range of diversity. I feel like it’s a great atmosphere for both members and our athletes,” said Wathen. 

Some of the club members were led to the club through their background and studies in Special Education and athletics at Alma. 

“I’ve been around special education my whole life, I’m majoring in it myself and my mom is a special education teacher, so I’ve just always been volunteering at stuff like this, and Alex Wathen asked me to start coming and it’s been a great time ever since I started to,” said Nathan Joseph (‘27) Special Olympic Club Member. 

“I’m a Special Education major and an athlete, so it was kind of like two worlds collided which just worked out perfect,” said Kyleigh Martin (‘26) Special Olympic Club Member. 

Many of the athletes and members participated in the Polar Plunge which happened on Feb 8 in Mt. Pleasant at O’Kelly’s/Wayside. Alma’s Special Olympic Club raised $900 at the event, which contributed to the total $64,200 that the event raised for Special Olympics Michigan (SOMI). This money is used to fund year-round athletic training and opportunities for the 23,000 Special Olympic athletes in the state. 

“Doing the Polar Plunge, I jumped in the dunk tank and everything, it was super fun bonding with all of the club members and athletes too,” said Martin. 

The club continues to meet on Monday nights and encourages Alma students to stop by and join. The club is starting its transition from basketball to the next sport that will be played at club meetings, Cornhole. For more event updates and to follow along with the weekly meetings, you can follow the Special Olympics Club Instagram account at @almaspecialolympics.