Special Olympian basks in glow of achievements

Perhaps the greatest measure of Joey Wehr's performance in the shot put competition at a recent Special Olympics event in Naperville was the lack of applause he received.

Time after time as the athletes took their turn heaving the weighted lead ball into the sand pit, their efforts were immediately rewarded with clapping and cheers.

But not Wehr.

Spectators seemed to forget the basic obligation of a Special Olympics crowd after the 17-year-old learning disabled student from West Chicago's Community High School took his turn. Instead, the awe-struck audience looked at one another and back at where the ball had come to rest. A spot that was 40 feet from the starting circle and about 30 feet past most other competitors' landing positions.

And then the cheers erupted.

Not bad for a first-timer at the Special Olympics who said shot put and high jump were his favorite events of the day.

"I've always liked throwing things and jumping," an initially timid Wehr explained. "Ever since I was little."

More cheers accompanied Wehr's acceptance of a gold medal once he and the other athletes in his group finished the pentathlon competition. Wehr dominated most of the five events. His lowest placing was second in the 400-meter dash.

"I could have probably done better in that," Wehr said. "I trained on the Prairie Path behind my house, but I don't really like running as much."

Wehr was among a group of eight student athletes with a varying degrees of learning, developmental or physical disabilities from the West Chicago high school who participated in the games at Naperville's North Central College. It was the first year the school had fielded a team for the Special Olympics. Coaches hoped Wehr's successes would persuade other special education students at the school to join the squad next year.

"It's one of these things that we had to start from the ground up," said Gavin Engel, a guidance counselor at the school and who volunteered to be the Special Olympics coordinator as well. "We had 10 kids come out for the basketball team this year, so we just put it out there and the kids who wanted to do track and field events came to us."

Engel said the school board and community leaders like West Chicago Mayor Michael Kwasman pushed for the school to create a Special Olympics program.

John Parker is one of Wehr's special education teachers at the school. He's also his coach. Parker said the athletes began training for the competition more than two months ago. The coach said Wehr's talents were immediately noticeable.

"I didn't have any expectations going in, but I could tell he was going to excel," Parker said.

Parker said all the athletes exhibited enthusiasm for the track and field events during training and he thought about using the practices as rewards for good work in their classes. But he said it never came to that.

"It turned out there was never a need," Parker said. "All eight that came out are all great kids who do good work in school."

Wehr said he enjoyed Saturday's competition, but lamented that this was only his first time participating in Special Olympics. Parker said he is hopeful that the high school's elementary feeder districts will create similar programs in the future.

"I'd like to see our program grow and see the little kids compete one day," he said.