The Queens Grant Stallions varsity basketball team visited Huntersville United Methodist Church on February 1st to participate in a Special Olympics basketball clinic. The players mixed in with the children and the players ran skill stations for shooting, dribbling, and passing. This is the second consecutive year the Stallions participated in the Special Olympics.
This is a great event for the players to give back and participate in a community service event. It’s so important in building character, self-awareness, civic pride and helping others who are not as fortunate.
Special Olympics offers year round sports training and provides competition that unleashes the human spirit by transforming the power and joy for children with intellectual disabilities being given the opportunity to compete in sports.
After the Special Olympics visit, the Stallions had a date to play Pine Lake Prep in a showdown between two top tier teams in the PAC 7 Conference. The Stallions enter the game at 15-5 overall, and 7-1 in the conference.
When the day ended, the Stallions lost a hard fought battle 54-50 on the road on Friday night. They were down 36-20 at the half, however, this team led by head coach Jay Forsythe made some adjustments, they have comeback capability along with some good talent and senior leadership.
In the third period, the Stallions outscored Pine Lake 22 to 7 with excellent shooting and shutdown defense. We now had a ball game looking like it was going to come down to the final minute. And indeed it did, the game was tied with one minute remaining before the Lions were able to pull ahead, and narrowly obtain a 4 point win on their home court.
The Stallions lost a tough ballgame, however, these young men learned important valuable life lessons as they mature into adulthood. In one solitary day, the players experienced the satisfaction of helping other human beings, while learning how to better handle defeat. Life will have it’s highs and lows, it’s rewards and disappointments. However, today together they made a difference as individuals and as a team, therefore, all became huge winners in life’s journey.
The Stallions leading scorers were LB Boyette 12, Jeremiah Murphy 11, McKnight 8, Sanders, 8, and Westbrook 6. For the Lions Demarcus Johnson led all scorers with 14, Justin Workman 12, Grant Wagner 10.
The Stallions will play three big games next week that will clearly determine their seed in the upcoming PAC 7 Conference Tournament.
