Special Olympics New York held an award ceremony for four of its local weightlifters on Sunday, September 8. Janessa Lloyd, Michael Kessler, Scott Panet, and Daniel Fletcher all competed in “State’s” at the Ithaca College-hosted competition earlier this year, as part of “Team American Muscle.”
The ceremony was held at Gold’s Gym in Smithtown. Awards were given out for the following categories: squat, bench press and deadlift. Suffolk County Comptroller John M. Kennedy and Suffolk County Legislator Leslie Kennedy were in attendance.
Lloyd received silver medals in the squat, bench press and deadlift categories. Kessler also received silver medals for squat and bench press, while garnering a fourth-place ribbon for deadlift. Fletcher received a fourth-place ribbon for squatting, and silver for both bench pressing and deadlift.
Panel, the organization’s lone gold winner—for deadlift—also received a bronze medal for his squatting efforts, and a silver medal in the bench press category.
Team American Muscle’s athletic representatives and its coaching staff each rode coach buses upstate, and stayed in campus dormitories with meals all-included. The lifting performances—which pitted the local quartet against other athletes across the state— were completed in a single date over Father’s Day weekend thoroughly enjoyed by all.
Fletcher and Panet competed at the national games in past years; assistant coach, Edna Fletcher, Daniel’s mother, detailed in conversation with The South Shore Press how the placing and selection process is actually pretty comparable to known standards.
“In any sport, especially now considering powerlifting, athletes train in that sport during that particular season. They compete in local competitions, and must do so in order to qualify them for state competition. And from state competitions, once they medal, they (judges) really look at gold.”
“All the athletes are wonderful, they really work their hearts out,” she adds. “If they medal in gold in several of those events, that puts them in contention to go to the National Games… if they get an allotment from particular sports, they can then perform on the world stage.”
The Special Olympics’ international tournament will take place in Italy next year.
Per specialolympics.org, Edna knows about the power of sports—the good of inclusion, and bad of exclusion—firsthand as a black, female athlete. For example, she recalls being laughed off the court for requesting more weight-training resources during her amateur basketball-playing days.
Now, she uses her post to help the next generation—both the athletes she is instructing in (1) muscle-building form and (2) comprehension of direction and a judge’s command—to reverse the unfortunate tides of a less-informed past.
“I live by this motto,” she says, “there is no such thing as disability, rather varying degrees of abilities.”
Edna and her husband, Warren, head coach of the team, complement one another as an instructive duo, and in general, because she brings her athletic pedigree, whereas he primarily sports a theater and engineering background. “In coordinating, and in statistics, he sees things that I don’t see,” Edna said.
Additional coaches for Team American Muscle include Heath Lloyd and Elvia Salia, plus additional volunteers with prior experience coaching outside of the Special Olympics.
“We train our coaches just like we train our athletes,” said Warren, who, as a Special Olympics clinician, must sign off on all assistant coaches’ training. Together, Warren and Edna see to it that all safety measures and codes of conduct are 100 percent complied with, 100 percent of the time.
Edna proudly boasts that in all these years coaching, their staff has never trained an athlete who has gotten hurt under their supervision.
Their organization would like to let the greater community know that it is “absolutely and always” on the lookout for more coaches, and especially more athletes.
All prospective coaches are subject to background checks, and fingerprinting if necessary.
The oldest athlete amongst their current roster is 36, with the youngest power-lifter 19, having started at 16 years old herself. Fourteen-year-old athletes are eligible to lift as well.
After coordinating a resoundingly successful event in collaboration with the Special Olympics’ local chapter earlier this year ahead of the Ithaca Games, Gold’s Gym of Smithtown is proud to announce a second annual such occasion, set for March 30, 2025.
Gold’s Gym general managers Maria Capitano, of Smithtown, and Susan Postel, of Center Moriches, began their partnership with what’s verifiably marketed as “the largest sports organization in the world” at a much earlier date. The Fletcher’s, originally from Deer Park, first called them up some fifteen years ago, seeking a location change.
The duo are happy to have provided Team American Muscle’s Special Olympians-in-training with ample space to regularly practice free of charge from the jump. “We’ve been married ever since,” Edna quipped.
Now, the Fletcher’s do not mind the trek to their beloved Landing Avenue facilities from their East Moriches neighborhood whatsoever; other than son Daniel, the furthest an athlete of theirs helms and travels from is Brentwood.
They encourage all qualified Long Islanders and New York statesmen to take advantage of the local Special Olympics resources in their area and at their disposal—even if it’s not with them, though they sure are rooting for it.
“We turn down no one,” Edna iterates, “whatever athletes come to us, we meet that athlete where they are, and then help them progress.”
In March, Gold’s will temporarily shut down their free weight area once more as volunteers under their employ and, if the first annual is any indication, local organizations such Smithtown High School West’s National Honor Society chapter, turn out to provide any assistance required.
Stay tuned for more community events coordinated by Gold’s Gym of Smithtown by following them on Instagram.