Broken Arrow Special Olympics Cheer heading to 2026 USA Games

The Broken Arrow Special Olympics Cheer team will get to compete in the USA Games next year in Minnesota.

Those games happen every four years. The cheer team just learned on Friday they’ve been selected.

The team happened to win a different competition on Friday. Now they're getting ready for a bigger stage.

“I think it's so awesome,” 10th grader Elliot Wade said.

“I'm looking forward to going out of state and competing with a bunch of other teams and just enjoying the company of everyone around,” 9th grader Adaya Ghesquire said.

The team is made up of 15 high schoolers, both with and without intellectual disabilities.

“It's such a great opportunity for them to realize that we're no different from each other. We have different abilities but we're all the same, and we all have the same hearts and that's what's important,” BA Special Olympics Assistant Coach Jen Montgomery said.

She learned earlier, the cheer team was selected to compete at the USA Games.

“It was about a month ago. And we've had to keep it a secret for this long. It's been hard,” Montgomery said.

On Friday, Broken Arrow took first place in a competition with 20 teams from across Oklahoma, all hoping to advance to the state games in May, hosted in Stillwater.

Now, they've got their sights set on Minnesota, too.

“Congratulations to Broken Arrow High, and we can't wait to see you shine on a national stage,” Special Olympics Oklahoma VP of Sports and Training John Seals said during the announcement.

“Cheer us on!” Ghesquire said.

Oklahoma will also be represented at the USA games through sports like flag football, bowling, swimming, tennis and more.

The cities and schools where those students are from have not been announced just yet.

Nearly 70 athletes from across Oklahoma will head to the big games next summer.