Bowling them over

Published 6:04 am Monday, March 4, 2013

Mackenzie Green likes to win, and for over a decade she’s been winning quite a bit at Georgia state Special Olympics contests.

But the Whitfield County resident says winning isn’t the most important part of those games.

“I like to meet new people and see people I know. We just sit on the bleachers and talk,” she said. “It doesn’t matter whether you win or lose. It’s all fun.”

Mackenzie will get to meet many more new people next year when she and her mother Diane travel to Princeton, N.J., to represent Georgia in the Special Olympics 2014 USA Games. The two will compete as a unified bowling team.

“We normally compete as part of a four-person team with another Special Olympics athlete and partner,” said Diane. “But I understand at the nationals we will be competing as a two-person team and we will be paired with another athlete and partner for a four-person team.”

State and local Special Olympics organizations pick up all the costs for traveling athletes.

Mackenzie, 31, has been bowling for the past nine years, but Diane only started bowling four years ago.

“I’d never bowled before. It was not something my husband and I did, but she’d started and they asked if I’d be interested in forming a unified team. I agreed to give it a shot,” Diane said. “I’m not very good, but it’s a lot of fun.”

But Laura Sanders, who coaches the two, says Diane is just being modest.

“Her game has improved a lot. They are both very good, and I’m not surprised they were chosen,” she said. “I really want to go up there to watch them.”

Competing in state Special Olympics games has taken Mackenzie and her family to Savannah, Perry and Warner Robins.

“They do skiing in February and start practicing swimming then, too. Swimming is in May. Bowling is in August, and the ball games are in October, so we stay pretty busy,” Diane said.

This will be the first time that either has taken part in the national Special Olympics, but Mackenzie came close to competing in the 2013 Special Olympics World Games in Seoul, South Korea, earlier this year.

“Last year, she was chosen as an alternate to go to the world games in Seoul, South Korea, in skiing. As an alternate, you only get to go if the person who is chosen can’t go, so she wasn’t able to go. But it was an honor to be chosen,” said Diane.

In addition to bowling and skiing, Mackenzie competes in swimming and equestrian events as well as softball.

Softball is, in fact, a family affair for the Greens. Mackenzie’s brother Wesley helps coach the team, and her mother and father Joel help out as well.

“We won first place last year,” said Mackenzie.

She says she and her mother will be putting in plenty of practice over the next year.

Diane says the two are honored to be representing Georgia at the games.

“I like to think of Mackenzie as our little gift from God, and the Special Olympics has been another gift from God. Lisa Hughey (Special Olympics coordinator for the Dalton Parks and Recreation Department) and her coaches are so dedicated and so wonderful,” she said. “We are like a family. There are athletes, especially in swimming, that Mackenzie has been practicing and competing with since she was 18.”