Helena Halos named 2026 Special Olympics Montana Local Program of the Year

The Helena Halos were named Special Olympics Montana’s 2026 Local Program of the Year, recognition for a team in Helena that has become as much about belonging as it is about medals.

The award reflects a program built around steady companionship between Special Olympics athletes and Carroll College student-athletes. Coach Scott Held said the group keeps coming back for the joy and fellowship as much as the competition, while Carroll College athlete Spencer Berger described the atmosphere as starting with something as simple as a smile and said the team’s energy can lift a bad day.

That bond has been years in the making. The Helena Halos formed in 2021 to bridge the gap between youth Special Olympics and adult Special Olympics, with athletes then ranging from 18 to 23. The team’s purpose was simple: keep young adults connected to competition, friends and a place where they fit. In Lewis and Clark County, that has grown into a year-round community that reaches well beyond practice.

Carroll College’s Special Olympics Club, which partnered with the Halos, started in spring 2020 and grew from two founding members to 83 students and four faculty members by 2021. The club works with more than 30 athletes across three Special Olympics Montana teams, including the Helena Halos, the TriCounty Tornados and the TriCounty Wolves. Its calendar runs from campus football and basketball games to team dinners, Polar Plunge participation, Respect Rally, College Challenge week and plans for a Buddy Walk.

The connection has also become part of Carroll’s larger culture of inclusion. In 2025, the college was named Montana’s Unified Champion School of the Year for the second time. It was also described as a national banner school and ranked sixth nationally for Unified College Championship Week, underscoring how deeply unified sports have taken root on campus. Three Helena Halos athletes serve as representatives on the Carroll Special Olympics Club board, and the club had about twenty unified partners in 2025.

The Halos now turn to the competitive stage with the Special Olympics Montana State Summer Games set for May 13-15 in Billings. Nearly 1,000 athletes, along with coaches and team volunteers, are expected for events including track and field, cycling, swimming, gymnastics, bocce, soccer, golf and the Motor Activities Training Program.

The Games have grown into one of Montana’s biggest amateur sports gatherings. Billings drew 1,400 athletes and more than 1,200 volunteers in 2024, with an estimated economic impact of nearly $1 million. Even with that scale, the Helena Halos’ latest honor rests on something more personal: a program that has made friendship, trust and inclusion part of everyday life in Helena.