Jesuit Dad's Club To Host Area Regional Special Olympics Games

TAMPA, FL -- Hundreds of athletes will compete for medals in tennis and volleyball on Saturday when the Jesuit High School Dad's Club hosts the annual regional Special Olympics games.

The Special Olympics Florida 2019 Area VIII Summer Games, which includes athletes from Hillsborough, Polk and Highland counties, will take place at Jesuit High School, 4701 N. Himes Ave., Tampa, on April 6 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Opening ceremonies led by Grand Marshal Robert Moore, who recently earned Gold and Silver
medals at the Special Olympics World Games, will kick off the games at 9 a.m. at Jesuit's Corral Memorial Stadium.

Throughout the day, more than 600 Special Olympics athletes will compete in tennis and volleyball, track and field, soccer, cycling, bocce and other sports at Jesuit and the nearby Dale Mabry campus of Hillsborough Community College.

The school began to ramp up for the Special Olympics on March 20 when Special Olympics athlete and global messenger Thomas Shervington spoke to the Jesuit student body about the impact the Special Olympics has made on his life.

For 19 years, the Jesuit Dads' Club and student volunteers have been involved in the Special Olympics games.

Jesuit’s connection to the Special Olympics dates back 1972 when Eunice Kennedy Shriver and Gov. Reubin Askew came to Jesuit to light the Olympic Torch as the school hosted Florida’s first statewide Special Olympics.

After years of being held at the University of South Florida, the Special Olympics Florida Area VIII
Summer Games were brought back to Jesuit by the Dads’ Club in 2016.

Area VIII is one of 11 designated in Florida that annually conduct Special Olympics State Championships.

Residents are invited to cheer on the athletes at the private, all-male Catholic high school.