Special Olympics Wisconsin State Indoor Sports Tournament

press release: Special Olympics Wisconsin’s State Indoor Sports Tournament will be unveiling a new format next month at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh that focuses on bringing 20 additional basketball teams to the tournament.

Although the Indoor Sports Tournament has been taking place annually for more than 40 years now, the 2017 tournament happening the weekend of April 8-9 will now include 56 teams from across the state instead of 36 and will be a team basketball-only event. Nearly 600 athletes are expected to participate and every region of Special Olympics Wisconsin will be represented in the USA Games-qualifying tournament.

In addition to involving many more athletes in the basketball tournament, this new format is a great way to expose more athletes to Special Olympics Wisconsin’s Healthy Athletes program, which gives the athletes access to eye exams, dental screenings and hearing exams. In fact, the Indoor Sports Tournament helps more athletes get these critical screenings than any Special Olympics Wisconsin event outside of the Summer Games.

Despite the changes to the format of the Indoor Sports Tournament, one thing that certainly isn’t changing is the venue. UW-Oshkosh has been the location of the event since 1976.

So mark your calendar for the second week of April and get yourself to UW Oshkosh to watch some fantastic and truly entertaining basketball or head over to Special OlympicsWisconsin.org to sign up to volunteer for this amazing event.

SOWI is a statewide organization that unleashes the transformative power and joy of sports everyday around the world. Through work in sports, health, education, and community building, Special Olympics is addressing inactivity, injustice, intolerance, and social isolation by encouraging and empowering people with intellectual disabilities which leads to a more welcoming and inclusive society.  With the support of coaches and volunteers, Special Olympics is able to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in 17 Olympic-type sports to nearly 10,000 individuals with intellectual disabilities. Thank you to Kwik Trip and the Law Enforcement Torch Run, the Mission Partners of SOWI, enabling the organization to hold more than 500 competitions annually throughout the state. Join our online community by following us on Twitter and Facebook! For more information, visit SpecialOlympicsWisconsin.org or call (800) 552-1324.