Aroostook Special Olympics soccer is going strong after a decade

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 A