CCSD Students Win Gold in State's Summer Special Olympics

Cherokee County School District students won gold in the statewide summer Special Olympics!

Cherokee County Special Olympics’ flag football team won gold at the Summer Games and numerous students earned gold for individual swimming, tennis and track and field events.

Congratulations to our Gold Medalists: 

FLAG FOOTBALL
Joey Sarrica, Transition Academy 
Cody West, Transition Academy 
Wynn Murray, Mill Creek MS
Charlie Holderness, Creekview HS
Aiden Bailey, Creekview HS 
Coach: Jamie Hunt, Clayton ES 

SWIMMING
Level A Aquatics: 
Stevie Eifert, R.M. Moore ES STEM Academy – 10 M Assisted
Alex Kozlowski, Dean Rusk MS – 15 M Walk
Sahasra Rajesh, Hickory Flat ES – 10 M Assisted
Bryton Rawlings-Peterson, Woodstock High School – 10 M Assisted
Colton Wagener, Liberty ES – 10 M Assisted, 15 M Floatation
Christopher Yancy, Transition Academy – 10 M Assisted, 15 M Unassisted 

Level B/C Aquatics:
Xavier Baldonado, Sequoyah HS – 50 M Freestyle
Del Cannon, Transition Academy - 25 M Freestyle
Sean Ela, Mill Creek MS – 25 M Freestyle
Nicole Fox, Transition Academy – 50 M Freestyle, 25 M Backstroke
Davis Kohl, Tippens EC – 50 M Freestyle
Brayden Mays, Dean Rusk MS - 25 M Freestyle, 25 M Backstroke
Nicolle Valle, Etowah HS - 25 M Freestyle
Merritt Wilson, Transition Academy – 25 M Breaststroke

Senior Unified Relay: 
Xavier Baldonado, Sequoyah HS; Del Cannon – Transition Academy; and unified partners, Leia Lankford, Woodstock HS and Brayden Spivey, Cherokee HS

Senior Traditional Relay: 
Andrew Barnes, Sequoyah HS; Nicolle Valle, Etowah HS; Merritt Wilson, Transition Academy and Remy Wilson, Woodstock HS 

Coaches
Aquatics Head Coach/Coordinator: Merry Hofmeister, CCSD instructional technology specialist
Level B/C Head Coach: Jordan Hofmeister, Tippens EC teacher
Level A Head Coach: Paula Dixon, CCSD adapted music teacher
Level A Jr Coaches/Unified Partners: Emmy Mims and Madison Woodall, Woodstock HS students
Aquatics Assistant Coach: Kris Cole, Teasley MS teacher

TENNIS
Unified Doubles:
Brody Wright, Transition Academy 
Unified partner, Aven Wright, Cherokee HS

TRACK & FIELD
Matthew Bek, Transition Academy — Turbo Javelin 
Lyric Welch, Liberty ES – 100M and Turbo Javelin 

They will be recognized by the Cherokee County School Board and Superintendent of Schools Mary Elizabeth Davis at the August School Board meeting.  The Olympians will be joined at the meeting by CCSD Adapted PE teacher Ben Farist, who serves as the Cherokee County Special Olympics coordinator.

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