Wood County Special Olympics athletes, coaches, and volunteers headed to Columbus on Friday to compete in the State Summer Games at Ohio State University.

Wood County Special Olympics, better known as Wood County Wildcats, will have 21 total athletes attending State Games competing in track and field, bocce, and power lifting.

On Friday morning, Wood County Special Olympics held a sendoff celebration with music, confetti and more at Wood County Board of Developmental Disabilities Campus.

Wood County Law Enforcement, Wood County Fire Department. and State Highway Patrol arrived WCBDD campus to help celebrate and send the crew off safely to Columbus.

Wood County has 15 track and field athletes competing at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium — Tyler Hitt, Abigail Simmons, Stephen Scholl, Christopher Schuckers, Kim Fechter, Harrison Bohland, Stephanie Kline, Laura Reimer, Sawyer Rader, Trevor Sachs, Gavin Coonrod, Melissa Frizado, Sean Brown, Lucas Reffert, and Anne Schooley.

Wood County has five bocce athletes competing — Brooke Coan, Chris Doerne, Dennis Miller, and JoLynn Snyder. A.J. Bach will be competing in power lifting.

“The athletes have invested in themselves with countless hours of training,” said LeAnn Frankfather, Wood County Special Olympics coach.

“It’s exciting to see it all come together at the state event. I couldn’t be prouder of what they have accomplished and will continue to accomplish.”

Wood County Board of Developmental Disabilities has operated the Special Olympics program since its creation in 1970 for youth and adults served in Wood County. Today, there are more than 450 active participants in Special Olympics sports throughout Wood County.

Wood County Special Olympics offers nine different sport opportunities ranging from basketball, volleyball, softball, swimming, and more. You are eligible to participate if you are age 8 and older.

To learn more about Special Olympics, please visit https://www.woodcountydd.org/special-olympics.