by Andrew Alonzo | aalonzo@claremont-courier.com

Fourteen Pomona Valley athletes will be among hundreds competing at the 2025 Special Olympics Southern California Summer Games June 7-8 at California State University Long Beach.

They include Sharif Ali, Christine Arellano, Adulfo Benitez, Kimberly Frey, Christopher Hernandez, Ryan Hubbard, Liz Kenna, Nick Millard, Adam Olmos, Danny O’Dell, Amadeo Pina, Erick Santacruz, Kenny Williams, and MacKenzie Willis, competing in track and field, basketball, bocce, flag football, swimming and others. Competition in bocce and flag football includes “unified” play, with teams comprised of athletes with and without intellectual disabilities.

Sharif Ali, 40, is both a coach and athlete. The Monrovia resident been with the team for 12 years, and will run in the 100- and 200-meter dash competitions. In years past he competed in bowling, soccer, and swimming. He got involved with Special Olympics during his years at Taft College, near Bakersfield, where he enrolled in its transition to independent living program.

(L-R) Pomona Valley Special Olympics athlete Erick Santacruz, coaches Janine Williams and Tony Ferguson, and athlete Kenny Williams after a recent practice at Claremont High. Courier photo/Andrew Alonzo

“When he was in Bakersfield, he was involved, for the first time, in the Special Olympics, working in bocce,” said his mother, Monica Ali. She’s lost count of how many games her son has participated in, but estimated it at 15.

Twenty-four-year-old Walnut resident Willis is another powerhouse competitor on Pomona Valley’s team. She runs the 200- and 400-meter women’s events, the 4×100 men’s relay, and participates in the softball throw. The now 12-time Special Olympian said she’s excited to be competing again, and for the chance to reconnect with other Olympians.

Willis will also serve as the Pomona Valley Special Olympic team’s global messenger, sharing with others what Special Olympics has brought to her life. Willis’s coach Doneva Wickwire nominated Willis due to her passion and love for Special Olympics.

“She never complains. She’s enthusiastic,” Wickwire said. “Not just for Pomona Valley, she knows everybody in Special Olympics and has been running with these people for the last eight years. And it’s wonderful to see her in competition, to walk off with somebody else from another delegation and they’re arm and arm. That’s our MacKenzie.”

Wickwire painted a picture of compassion that athletes share with each other. “Nick [Millard], one of our walkers, will go ahead and, if you trip, he will stop his race and help you up,” she said. “That’s what Special Olympics is all about.”

(L-R) Kenny Williams, Sharif Ali and MacKenzie Willis practice sprints at Claremont High on Saturday ahead of the June 7-8 Special Olympics Southern California Summer Games at Cal State Long Beach. Courier photo/Andrew Alonzo

The athletes have been working with volunteer coaches including Tony Ferguson, Janine Williams, and Wickwire since March. Training is crucial, but Williams said athletes and coaches also reap social and emotional benefits.

“We have connections,” Williams said. “This is the most important thing in their life and [the athletes] remember, so anything that we can bring to them, be it someone from the Colleges, some of the high school kids, they just want a connection.”

Coach Williams and her son, Kenny, 35, have been involved with Special Olympics since 2006. She said he finds joy with his Special Olympics friends. Wickwire has been volunteering for 22 years. She said the best part about Special Olympics is that it mirrors its counterpart in that athletes compete in their events without any modifications.

Another shared tradition between the two Olympic Games is the Olympic flame, which will be delivered by numerous law enforcement and military agencies to Cal State Long Beach’s Walter Pyramid at CSULB at 6:30 p.m. Friday, June 6 for the opening ceremony of the 2025 Special Olympics Southern California Summer Games.

Pomona Valley Special Olympics Team coach Janine Williams. Courier photo/Andrew Alonzo

Competition runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, June 7, and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, June 8. Swimming events take place at Millikan High School, 2800 Snowden Ave., Long Beach.

Admission is free. For an events schedule, visit sosc.org/summergames.