The Valencia Lanes was packed on Saturday morning, with teams from across southern California including the Santa Clarita Valley for the 2026 SCV Bowling Competition hosted by the Special Olympics of Southern California.
Throughout the day, athletes as young as 8 were ready to put their game faces on and compete for a chance to make it to the championship Special Olympics bowling tournament set to be held Aug. 22 in Lakewood.
But before teams could see who would go onto the next level, family, friends, and coaches were already cheering on their athletes for their resilience, dedication, and sportsmanship throughout the morning event.
The Special Olympics is the world’s largest sports organization for people with intellectual abilities, with 4.4. million athletes in 170 countries and millions of volunteers and supporters, according to the organization’s online site.
At Valencia Lanes, over 150 athletes with hundreds more volunteers were present for the morning and afternoon competition.
The SCV team coached by husband and wife Sam and Gail Silver, joined the team as coaches three years ago, but really became a part of the community when their daughter Sydney, who has autism, was just 8 years old. And although she wasn’t present for the competitions because she was away at camp, Gail and Sam were still present to support their athletes and cheer them on.
Gail and Sam only coach bowling, and with the sport only being offered throughout the summer, they don’t always get to see all the athletes year round, but when they finally get the chance to reconnect “they walk up, they give you a smile and a big giant hug and it’s all worth it,” Gail said.
Other sports such as soccer, softball, basketball and much more are offered throughout the year and are coached by other volunteers.
“There’s a lot of lessons they can teach us,” Sam added.
As the morning competition continued, 60 athletes from SCV were competing against the Antelope Valley, Tehachapi and others. The competition has been held at the Valencia Lanes in previous years and something Gail and Sam both were grateful for. When they aren’t playing for the Special Olympics, many get together every Monday to play under the name Strike Force, creating meaningful connections with the bowling alley’scustomer service manager David Critchfield and general manager Jensen Millar.
“Seeing the growth in all of them, all these athletes, is just amazing. Just in the amound of time we’ve been doing this, and it really is all about the athletes,” Sam said, before adding that they’re hoping volunteers to coach bowling will come forward as they plan to step down next year.
Due to lack of coach volunteers, they had to turn down a number of athletes but are aiming to bring in more help so they wont have to in the future.
As athletes continued their morning aiming for strikes, and taking turns Antelope Valley coach Dina Bacon joined the community to support her son when he was 9 years old. Now as a 23 year old, she’s noticed her son become a part of the community, forming friendships.
One thing she hopes others do before making assumptions about individuals with intellectual limitations is “we just need a little more patience. If indivduals got to know this community more, they’d have a little more pace in their life, because they are the most sweet, honest, kind individuals I’ve ever met.”
