Three decades after Special Olympics Aroostook launched a basketball team for athletes with intellectual disabilities, Carl Michaud and Presque Isle Athletic Director Mark White sat in the stands of a high school cheerleading competition.
They were discussing the success of that team — called the Snowdogs — in their most recent season, when White brought up a new idea.
“He says, ‘You know, you guys should start a soccer team,’” said Michaud, the COO of the Central Aroostook Association and a longtime volunteer with Special Olympics. “I’m like, ‘That’s a great idea.’”
A decade later, there Michaud was, celebrating on the field with that team — the Grasshoppers — as they scored at the buzzer to walk-off the Presque Isle girls varsity soccer team under the lights at the Gehrig T. Johnson Athletic Complex in Presque Isle. The final score: 12-11 Grasshoppers after two 20-minute halves.
That’s a Grasshoppers game. High paced and high scoring. It’s what Michaud has come to expect.
“They play hard,” Michaud said. “I expect a lot from them because they can actually play soccer very well.”
That morning, more than 100 athletes gathered on the soccer fields of the University of Maine at Presque Isle for Special Olympics Aroostook’s annual soccer tournament.
They came in droves from across The County: from as far north as Fort Kent, from Fort Fairfield and Limestone to the east. Their goal, in part, was to be crowned champion of the seven-on-seven tournament — but more so it was to have fun.
“It’s the only time we get excited to wake up early,” Hayden Bay, one of the many UMPI soccer players helping with the event, said.
The Grasshoppers are somewhat of an extension of the tournament, which has been an annual fixture for more than 25 years. In the excitement of athletes and the event’s growth — participation boomed before COVID and has bounced back since the pandemic — lie the potential for a full-season team.
“It gives them a chance to do something more than just a one-day event,” tournament organizer Spencer King said.
King coached the Snowdogs for five years before stepping down in early September. He sees the same benefits that athletes gain from basketball in the Special Olympics soccer programs
“It’s back to just simplicity, right?” King said. “They’re enjoying the game. And I think that’s the most crucial part: having them have fun — and having an outlet to do that.”
The Grasshoppers buzzer-beater win against Presque Isle on Sept. 17 capped off the team’s seven-game season, and the 10th season in program history.
Their opponents have expanded over time — this year they included Fort Fairfield, Easton, Mars Hill and both the boys and girls varsity teams at Presque Isle and Caribou — as have Michaud’s expectations. And the Grasshoppers, who rostered about 30 athletes this season, continue to rise to meet them.
“I know they can play well. I know they can play well as a team,” Michaud said. “We played against the Caribou boys two nights ago. It was the best game all season. There was passing, they were running the ball, there were shots, it was great.”
Equally important is the partnership of the high school teams that the Grasshoppers scrimmage.
“We couldn’t play anybody if they don’t understand the mission of what we’re trying to do,” Michaud said. “They play the game. They play against us hard enough that it makes our team work. And if they didn’t do that, then it wouldn’t work.”
In doing so, Grasshoppers’ players form relationships with the athletes as they progress in high school. During the Sept. 17 game, some of Presque Isle’s veteran players cheered on their opponents by name.
“Every year they’ll come back and you see sophomores become juniors and then become seniors,” Michaud said. “Our players remember them, they remember us and they just make those connections again. It’s an awesome thing.”
Soccer is an outlet for the Grasshoppers, and gives athletes the opportunity to get out and socialize with friends. It’s also about the games, the competition and the thrill of winning. To them, the sport is an amalgamation of all of that — a truth that the program and those like it have preached for years.
There’s perhaps no greater evidence of that than a question Michaud has gotten numerous times a year, every year, since the team began a decade ago.
“After the season’s done, it’s ‘Hey, hi coach, how are you doing? When do we play soccer again?’” Michaud said. “I’m like ‘It’s February, so we’ve got to wait a little while, but yes, we’ll play soccer soon.’ They think about it all year long.”
