A Close- Up Look At People Who Matter : Bowler Comes Up Winner at Special Games

Only a few pins would make the difference.

“Oh man, is this close,” Dennis Wick said to himself throughout the three-game series that would determine the winner for the doubles bowling event in the Special Olympics World Games.

Wick was watching closely a match involving Amy Willocks, 25, of Lancaster, who was paired with a teammate from San Francisco as Team California. The event was held at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., earlier this month.

A couple of times, Wick found himself checking their score and thinking to himself, “If they don’t make this spare, it’s over.”

Wick, area director for the Antelope Valley Special Olympics, kept those doubts to himself. In the spirit of the Special Olympics, he always tells his athletes, “It doesn’t matter if you win the gold medal. It only matters if you try.”

Still, Wick has had some heartbreaking moments as a coach, such as the time one runner was scared by the starting pistol in the 400 meters in 1983 and couldn’t catch up. But in his 18 years with the Special Olympics at all levels of the game, Wick has been there for his athletes with words of encouragement, such as, “Guys, guys, don’t get down on yourself.”

The Special Olympics were created in 1968 by Eunice Kennedy Shriver to offer competition in sports for the mentally disabled. Everyone is a winner at the Special Olympics, and the games’ value is in giving the athletes a boost in pride and self-confidence in other aspects in their lives.

This year, Wick needed a boost.

“I was getting whipped, tired,” said Wick, 51, who was drawn into the Special Olympics program after he became a special education teacher.

Teaching students with disabilities for the Los Angeles County Office of Education had given him a motivation like no other job. But the years of volunteer work had recently become draining. “I really like what I do, but am I getting burnt-out here?” he asked himself.

Wick said he has always told the skeptical to watch the competition just so they could be surprised to see the mentally disabled break all of the stereotypes.

But this year’s games were a source of illumination for him as well.

“When they lit that torch for those 12 days, that was my fire,” he said. “I got the energy I needed to keep going as long as they’ll have me.”

Keeping his doubts to himself, Wick watched as the bowling averages were calculated. Willocks and her partner scored 158, just four pins ahead of a second-place team from Arkansas. A team from New Zealand finished third.

“I never thought we’d get the gold,” Wick said.

The Team California representatives received their medals from actor Paul Newman, and Wick received a reaffirmation of purpose. “I think I have found my niche,” he said.

The Special Olympics unite the two things he said he loves most in life--sports and working with the mentally disabled.

The spirit of sportsmanship surpasses that of the Olympic Games, which is often marred by politics and boycotts, Wick said. At the Special Olympics’ opening ceremonies July 1, an Israeli team of athletes marched into the stadium in front of a Palestinian team.

California sent 68 athletes to the games, which included a total of 7,000 competitors from 141 countries.