Ossining Basketball Players Coach, Celebrate Athletes with Disabilities

Extreme athlete and Purple Heart and Bronze Star recipient James (Jim) Meeks and the four-time New York State Champions, Ossining Pride girls basketball team helped celebrate the achievements of more than 30 student athletes with disabilities (ages 9-18) at the New York Institute for Special Education’s annual Sports Awards ceremony on Thursday, May 26.

The event recognized students’ excellence in such sports as swimming, track and field, cheerleading, bowling, basketball, wrestling and goalball.

Prior to the awards ceremony, Pride coach Dan Ricci and players led a basketball clinic that left the Institute’s children impressed with the team’s skills and eager to participate. The members of the team later helped distribute trophies to all of the Institute’s student athletes during the ceremony.

The featured speaker for the awards, Jim Meeks, shared with the children inspiring stories of his experiences as an athlete and leader. He is a member of TeamExtreme, a group of ordinary people with a passion for making adifference in the lives of others by pushing their physical limits in a variety of extreme athletic events to raise money for the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, which provides services for wounded heroes in uniform.

The awards concluded with a special heartfelt “thank you” from the children and faculty to retiring Coach “Jack” Cuggy for his commitment and devotion to the school’s sports program and athletes. For more than 29 years Coach Jack provided his guidance and leadership to the athletic program and the teams, instilling the children with confidence and pride.

The New York Institute for Special Education (www.nyise.org), founded in 1831 as The New York Institute for the Education of the Blind, is one of the oldest and most respected schools in the nation that provides specialized services for children with disabilities. Located in the Bronx since 1924, NYISE provides quality programs for more than 300 students from New York City’s five boroughs, Westchester County and upstate New York, including more than 120 children from the Bronx, ages 3 to 5, who attend its preschool.

PHOTO: Players from the four-time New York State Champions, Ossining Pride girls basketball team, give pointers on shooting free-throws to one of the New York Institute for Special Education’s student athletes during a basketball clinic held prior to the school’s annual Sports Awards Ceremony on Thursday, May 26/contributed