Special Olympics Flag Football — Jon’s Game Day, Big Throws, and That Smile 🏈
Saturday morning was Jon’s first Special Olympics flag football game day of the season, and I am still smiling about it. He is on the skills team this year, which means he does not play in the five-on-five games — he competes in the individual events instead. Throwing for distance. Throwing for accuracy. Catching. Pulling flags. This is his second season, and watching him walk out onto a field like he owns the place has not gotten old even a little bit.
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Watch Jon’s whole game day above — or keep reading below.
He was ready before any of us were. Jersey on, number 5 across the front, Focus Academy on one side and Hillsborough County across the back. He stood in the parking lot in the early light letting me take his picture, and he was so proud of that uniform I could have cried right there before a single event started.
The throwing events were the part I was most curious about. He steps up behind the line, gets that arm back, and lets it go — and the ball actually goes somewhere. Every single time he let one fly, he turned around to find us on the sideline first, before the ball even landed. That is the part nobody tells you about. He is not checking his distance. He is checking that somebody saw him.
Then came flag pulling, which turned out to be his favorite thing on the whole field. A coach takes off running with the flags on her belt and the athlete has to chase her down and pull one. Jon got one. He came away holding that yellow flag up with the biggest grin, and I do not think he stopped grinning for the rest of the morning.
What a Special Olympics Flag Football Skills Day Actually Looks Like
If you have never been to one, here is the honest version. It is a big open field with cones and stations and a lot of people in yellow volunteer shirts. Athletes rotate through the events in small groups. There is no clock pressure, no cut, nobody sitting on a bench. Somebody claps for every single throw, including the ones that go three feet. Jon’s program runs through Hillsborough County’s adaptive sports department, and if you are in our area and have a kid who would love this, that page is where you start.
And at the end, every athlete gets a medal. Every one of them. I want to be straight about that, because I think people assume a medal means a placement. It does not. But I will tell you something — it does not change one thing about how it makes him feel. He wore it the whole way home. He wore it into the house. He stood in the kitchen and showed it to his brother and sisters like he had just come back from the Olympics, and as far as I am concerned he had.
Jon has Down syndrome, and one of my very favorite things about him is that he does not hesitate. He does not stand at the edge of a new thing and weigh it. He just goes. Second season, new sport, a field full of people he mostly does not know, and he walked right out there. I have learned more from watching that boy step onto a field than I have from almost anything else.
Special Olympics Flag Football FAQ — What Families Ask Us
What is Special Olympics flag football?
It is a fall sport for athletes with intellectual disabilities, run through local Special Olympics programs. Some athletes play on team squads in actual five-on-five flag football games, and others compete on the skills team in individual events. Both are real competition and both end the same way, with everybody on the field getting cheered for.
What does the skills team actually do?
Skills athletes rotate through individual stations instead of playing in the games. For flag football that means throwing for distance, throwing for accuracy, catching a toss, and pulling a flag off a moving coach. Jon is on the skills team this year and it fits him beautifully — he gets his own turn at every single station.
Does every athlete get a medal?
Yes, every athlete gets one, and I will never pretend otherwise. But if you have ever watched a kid put a medal around his own neck and refuse to take it off for six hours, you stop caring how he got it. The medal is not the prize. Being on the field is the prize. The medal is just the thing he gets to hold onto afterward.
How do I get my child into Special Olympics?
You start with your county or local program rather than the national site. There is usually an athlete participation packet and a medical form, and then you pick a sport season. It is free for the athlete. Ours goes through Hillsborough County here in Florida, and the coaches have been some of the kindest people we have ever handed our son to.
What other sports does Jon play?
He has played Buddy Baseball for years, which is where a lot of you first met him, and he did Special Olympics basketball last spring and scored three baskets in one game. Flag football is the newest one. Every season he adds something, and every season I think this is the one I will be able to watch without getting choked up, and every season I am wrong.
💛 New here? Meet Jon.
Jon’s whole story lives on his own page — how he came home, every season he has played, and what we have learned raising a child with Down syndrome.
More Jon Moments You’ll Love
- Jon Scores THREE Baskets at Special Olympics Basketball — his first Special Olympics season, and the day he could not stop celebrating.
- Jonathan’s Last Buddy Baseball Game of the Season — Three Hits and a Home Run — sixteen seasons of Buddy Baseball, and he closed it out like this.
- A Day in the Life of Our Sweet Son Jon — what an ordinary Tuesday looks like around here.
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Special Olympics Flag Football — About Stephanie Longstreth
Stephanie Longstreth is the home cook, mom, and storyteller behind StephanieCooksForACrowd.com. She cooks for a family of seven in Florida — five kids, two cats, and one husband who appreciates a good meal. Four of her children came home through adoption, and family stories are woven into everything she makes and shares. Find her crowd-friendly recipes, weekly meal plans, and real family life on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest @stephaniecooksforacrowd.