This past month, the Plainfield Special Olympics were held throughout Plainfield High Schools, and the state competition was held at Illinois State University. One of the top placers included South’s very own Erica Heller.
The regional competition, which Erica played basketball, was her first competition.
“I felt okay with it,” Heller said excitedly, when hearing the unexpected news. “I didn’t know how good I was going to do.” she said.
She showed hard work, which payed off when she qualified for state, saying that she relied on the strength of “knowing I could do it” and this without a doubt helped her get to State.
“(She) went in there confidently,” Anne Bayles, one of Heller’s teachers said.
“At the competition I think I took 5th place for basketball,” Heller said.
“(And) I’m very proud of myself,” Heller said, with a smile on her face.
Apart from the obvious victory of making it so far into the competition, Heller got another surprise when she was taken down to the principal’s office. There Yanello and Erica took a picture together, and she also received a t-shirt.
“I would love to do (competition) again,” Heller said.
“Same event or another?” Bayles asked.
“Same event,” Heller said.
William Harvey, Special Ed teacher, also was proud of Erica.
“It was pretty exciting,” Harvey said, when he had heard the news Heller was going to compete in this competition.
“We’ve had people compete in this event before,” Harvey said, “but this was Erica’s first year competing, as well as her first year going to state, so that was pretty awesome.”
“Yeah!” Heller said, excited.
At the end of the day, South was very proud to hear that we had yet another student athlete compete at a high level. Congratulations, Erica Heller!