Flag Football Team Competes in 2018 Special Olympic USA Games

The UM Unified Flag Football team is in Seattle competing in the 2018 Special Olympics USA Games. Submitted photo

The University of Mississippi sent a flag football team to Seattle this week to participate in the 2018 Special Olympic USA Games July 1-6. The Olympics highlight the abilities of athletes with intellectual disabilities while promoting ideals of acceptance and inclusion.

UM is entering the “Unified” competition, which means both special athletes and students compete. The Unified Flag Football team started in 2015 during its first Unified Egg Bowl against Mississippi State.
Ole Miss students competing on the Unified Flag Football team include Trey Skocy, a junior communication sciences and disorders major from Mattoon, Illinois; Josh Obregon, a senior accounting major from Columbia, Illinois; Marcus Thornton, a May 2018 graduate of elementary education from Shannon; and Dalton Sheffield, a senior biochemistry major from Henderson, Tennessee.
The Special Olympics athletes competing on the Unified Flag Football team are Daniel Arata from Desoto County, Madison Dennis from Tupelo, Luke Robinson from Pelahachie, Ben Rogers from Jackson and Bill Holden from Oxford.
Assistant Director of Intramural Sports for Ole Miss Amanda Alphert and former UM student Mary Evelyn Webb will coach the team. Alphert helped create Unified Intramural sports at Central Michigan University, when she came to Ole Miss in 2014 she wanted to bring Unified Sports to the campus and the community.
The flag football team competed Monday (July 2) against North Carolina and Alabama and will go up against Arizona and North Dakota Tuesday (July 3). The single elimination playoff tournament begins Wednesday (July 4).
To get the latest on the events at the Special Olympics click here.