Alabama, Michigan volleyball teams clinch gold in Special Olympics
USA’s Team Alabama won gold in the C division of unified volleyball with a come-from-behind victory in the title game against Botswana. (Matthew Cummings/Daily Bruin)
By Matt Cummings
Aug. 3, 2015 9:27 a.m.
Team Alabama, one of two states representing the United States in unified volleyball, brought 12 players to the Special Olympics World Games.
But ever since coach Tori Bartels started working with the players in January, she has preached a message of oneness.
“We beat as one heartbeat,” Bartels said. “So no matter who’s on the floor, those on the sideline are still beating with them and they’re carrying them on the floor with them. There’s no divisions, no separations. We’re one heartbeat, one ball at a time.”
The team needed that sense of unity, Bartels said, when it lost the first set of Saturday’s C-division gold medal match against Botswana.
“We ain’t never gave up, (Bartels) always told us to have heart,” said athlete Kemondre Taylor. “We have bounced back before. We’ve been in this situation and we have come back fighting.”
After winning the second set to force a third, Team Alabama faced an 11-7 deficit in the final set. Once again, Bartels’ players drew on their core concept, symbolized by placing their hands together in the shape of a heart.
“If we’re together as a team, we’ll win as a team,” Taylor said.
Sure enough, Alabama reeled off eight straight points to win the match and the gold medal.
“I’m ready to go back to Alabama with a gold medal,” Taylor said. “I finally did something special. We finally did something special.”
The team’s mere eight months of practice time are much less than the one or two years of experience that some of its competitors have, according to Bartels. But the coach, who works as the head coach for Faulkner University’s women’s volleyball team, said the team’s natural athleticism helped boost it to the title.
Alabama was not the only state to bring home a gold medal in volleyball, with Michigan also taking gold in the B division of non-unified competition Saturday.
“Just to be a winner is a great thing,” said athlete Dalvin Keller of Team Michigan. “(The Special Olympics have) been helping us through thick and thin, we’ve been having good fun with everybody.”
Keller and teammate Drew Callahan, both of Flint, Mich., said they were going to miss players they met from several different countries, from China to Costa Rica to Kazakhstan.
Although Keller said the friendships he made through the Games were more important than the gold medal, Callahan was in more awe of the prize around his neck.
“I don’t know about that, man, this thing is pretty heavy,” Callahan quipped as he slung his arm over Keller’s shoulder. “I’ll take gold over friendship. I’m sorry, man.”
Keller held firm.
“Gold will change anybody,” Keller said with a smile. “But friendship is better.”
