CHENEY – The West Plains Eagles are a group of athletes that compete in the Special Olympics competitions, and they represent the Northeast area of Washington state.
Brenda Devine, who has been the Program Coordinator for the West Plains Eagles since 2016 said she signed on when the previous coordinator retired. The team was tied to Cheney Parks and Recreation, and the Eagles had substantial success through 2017 and 2018 Devine said. She has since also taken on the role of Northeast Area Director for the Special Olympics in Washington.
She said the program initially allowed participation in a limited number of sports, but when certain programs expanded the West Plains Eagles hopped on to participate in as many sports as possible.
The team competes in various sports throughout the year, and participates in regional, state, and national events. Devine said the Eagles have excelled in that regard and have represented the region participating in 19 different sports.
This was made possible because Devine decided to prioritize the needs and wants of the participants she said. Devine said she was able to offer a wider variety of sports to the athletes and let them have some choice in the matter.
Doing away with the “take it or leave it one sport per season method” opened a lot of doors for the athletes and gave them confidence in choosing sports they were comfortable with.
The idea was very popular, and the Area Director said, “It took off like wildfire and athletes from all around our Northeast Area began to come out to play the variety of sports being offered with our team.”
She said this was impressive, because the team is quite small in terms of the number of athletes involved. Devine said one other program on the western side of the state was offering 15 different sports had nearly 700 participants, so to be offering 19 sports was a milestone for the group.
In 2019, Devine said she made the choice to go independent and separate from Cheney Parks and Rec.
“When our West Plains Program left the fee-based community program of Cheney Parks and Recreation, we really worked together as an “of the people, by the people and for the people” organization and wanted to represent the fact that our athletes (originally) were coming from all around this West Plains community, not just Cheney,” she said.
Devine elaborated more about the benefits and said, “Also, it was an agreeable strategy when needing to do the necessary fundraising that business and individual supporters would know that this team was representing our West Plains community as a whole. We all work together to support this team, recruiting Coaches, Volunteers, Unified Partners (people without disabilities playing on Unified Teams with athletes with disabilities), helpers, supportive funds and, naturally, spreading the word to other potential athlete participants.”
Devine said having the ability to participate in more sports led to the West Plains Eagles forming the first ever stand up paddleboard team in Washington back in 2017, and the team did very well earning three gold medals and two silver medals in 2018 after qualifying for a national competition. Devine said the Eagles were the only athletes there representing Washington State for that competition.
Devine said support and partnerships from within the community have been great as well. “We’ve had some great support from EWU and the women’s basketball has regularly visited and shared skills with our team. Many students from EWU and Cheney High School have also joined our Unified Teams for various sports,” she said.
Devine spoke about some of the opportunities resulting from the partnership with Eastern and continued, “We even participated twice with NIRSA (National Intramural Recreational Sports Association) for a Unified Basketball Team and after the EWU hosted Regionals (held nationally at various locations), we advanced to the Nationals in Kansas!”
Devine said she is excited moving into this year, because the pandemic had put a stop to in person events for a couple of years now.
The team has been practicing and is getting ready for the upcoming Regional competition for basketball on February 5th, and they will travel to Pullman to compete in that.
Devine said other competitions for Winter sports are coming up, but due to spikes in COVID numbers and other factors the schedules are being adjusted.
She said the West Plains Eagles will be the only regional team competing in the state snowshoe competition, and one of only a few teams competing in the cheerleading competition.
Devine said, “The first year they competed Snowshoers brought home mainly Gold and a few Silver medals and the Cheerleading Team brought home Gold.” She said anticipates strong performances moving forward.
Reporter Matthew O. Stephens can be reached at [email protected].
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