2012 Letter from the director We are family When I last wrote one of these letters 10 years ago, Challenger was still in its formative years, a kind of childhood if you will.  Well, another 10 years have gone by, to the point where we have matured into a wonderfully constructed and effective family unit. The excellence of Challenger is due to the combined efforts of ALL of its family members.  This is the way it should be, and this is the way it will continue. While Challenger has a very diverse list of family members, the people who are involved always manage to pool their efforts into a cohesive group where success piles upon success upon success. The key element to the Challenger family is, of course, the athletes.  They bring enjoyment, fun, youthful enthusiasm, motivation to improve, and an inherent sense to be part of a team.  Their desire to be the best they can be, to overcome obstacles, to be successful participants, and to learn new skills is the best way to unite everyone who is involved in the program. They also happen to be very good at what they do.  This is proven in the documented record of 6,480 wins and zero losses (pretty good considering at times they play against each other). When I am told by someone watching the exploits of an athlete with special needs on television who has achieved a wonderful level of success, I always say "Cool, but we do even better.  We have not lost a game for two decades". Our buddies, who will be running the world when we adults grow old, serve as the best example of "what is right" with the teens who are typically given bad press whenever the topic arises.  They undoubtedly provide most of the glue that begins to help mold the family into a unified whole.  They work, teach, model, mentor, befriend, and mini-coach the athletes to be the active creators of the family's success. Our coaches are the family coordinators who add the cement to the glue to insure that all of the active participants coalesce into mid-sized units. The parents and administrators lend their experience to all of the youthful enthusiasm mentioned above to insure that the mid-sized units become the entity known as CHALLENGER. Congratulations to all of you becoming 20 years old.  You will always be part of the Challenger family. Alan Goldstein
Director
June 2012