JACKSON – Township residents Steven Robertson, 23, and Kevin Sullivan-Stovall, 18, recently won medals during the Special Olympics 2025 summer games.
They were former school mates and now are bocce partners who took home gold medals at the Olympic event held at the College of New Jersey.
Both competed in bocce at TCNJ as Special Olympics team partners. Their team “This Is How We Roll” and thanks to their win they qualified to be part of Team New Jersey for the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games.
That event is scheduled to be held in Minneapolis, Minnesota June 20-26, 2026. Tryouts for Team New Jersey took place on July 26 in Lawrenceville. Kevin and Steven are excited to be there for that will be giving their all at the tryouts.
Steven, who has Down syndrome, is a graduate from Alpha School while Kevin, who has autism, still attends Alpha School located in Jackson. This was Kevin’s second time competing at the New Jersey Special Olympics. Steven has competed for several years.
Both athletes also bowl for the same team in the Special Olympics and their coach, Kathy Moore of Brick, has been a gym teacher and coach for Alpha School since 1985. Moore established the bowling and bocce team for current and alumni students of Alpha School.
“Their confidence level and skills have improved greatly. I’ve been coaching Kevin for two years now and Steven for two to three years. They get along with each other and other athletes wonderfully,” Moore said.
Moore said they received their bocci training “for four to five months before they competed in the summer games which is a weekend event. It was really quite special and for them to come home with a gold medal as part of Team New Jersey was great.”
“It was an honor just for them to have been selected,” said Moore, who recently retired after teaching for 40 years. She has been a coach for 20 years and plans to use some of her new retirement time in support of those with special needs.
“I have a great rapport with all the parents of these athletes,” she added. If they go to 2026 Olympics “they will be trained by a coach. I can’t coach them and go out there next year unfortunately but I want to continue my involvement with special needs activities and those two are really great kids.”
Corinne Sullivan and Paula Robertson both noted that their sons’ involvement with the Special Olympics program has proven to be a wonderful experience and that the two of them have a special friendship.
According to its website, “Special Olympics is a global organization that serves athletes with intellectual disabilities working with hundreds of thousands of volunteers and coaches each year. Since the establishment of Special Olympics in 1968, the number of people with and without intellectual disabilities who are involved with the organization has been growing, but the unmet need to reach more people with intellectual disabilities is staggering.”
Special Olympics New Jersey currently serves more than 24,000 athletes throughout the state. All programs are free to registered athletes including insurance, facilities, equipment, uniforms, housing & meals for events, awards, sports, education and more.
“In addition to programs offered on the local, county, sectional and state levels, Special Olympics New Jersey offers free programs and activities at the Special Olympics New Jersey Sports Complex in Lawrenceville, including Camp Shriver, fitness training, Athlete University, coach and volunteer training sessions, family programs and so much more,” the website notes. For additional information on visit specialolympics.org/programs/united-states/new-jersey.
