In the storied history of Cambridge basketball, there has never been a team like the Cambridge Warriors. Since 2017 it has gone 91-0 and is gearing up to represent Massachusetts at the Special Olympics in June.
This opportunity means a lot to Santiago Pineda, one of the star players on the Warriors, a Division 1 basketball team run by the Cambridge Program for Individuals with Special Needs.
“We earned it. We worked hard for it as a team,” said Pineda, 24, who has been with the program for six years. “It’s all about having a heart, a good mindset, and a good attitude when you’re on the court, so you gotta just keep pushing.”
For Chris Owens, the team captain, the opportunity to compete June 20-26 at the Special Olympics in Minnesota carries a lot of weight.
“It means everything because I’m an inner-city kid from Roxbury, and I didn’t really have the spotlight on me growing up,” said Owens, 24, who has been with the program for 10 years. “At 17, I came in the door at the Cambridge program and they treated me as family.”
The city-run Cambridge Program for Individuals with Special Needs supports people with disabilities from age 13 to late 70s. The team consists of people with different disabilities, both high and low functioning.
The Warriors compete in a league with teams from the Boston area composed of players with disabilities, with each team having a designated skill level. The Warriors are at the league’s highest skill level.
The Warriors are coming off an emphatic 65-24 win against the Brookline Gators on Feb. 15. As the season heads to a close, the Warriors are eyeing their two final opponents – the Dorchester Blue Devils and the Ivy Street Hawks.
The Warriors have been a dominant force throughout the season, outscoring their opponents 315 to 196, with an average win margin of 24 points.
The players credit hard work for their success. Owens said he has pushed himself in the gym and in the classroom to help get him to where he is.
“I put in the hard work and countless hours growing up. I was in the gym by myself, with friends, with my mom,” Owens said. “Waking up at 6 o’clock in the morning for early morning workouts, just thinking how and when my time will come and, God willingly, it’s finally here.”
David Tynes, head coach of the Warriors and program director, said the team is about more than basketball.
“We’re preparing to represent not only ourselves as basketball players but our state and our city,” Tynes said. “We’re a class of active young men that can play basketball but also be respectful of everybody else’s differences at the same time.”
He said he wants to support the players not just as athletes but as young men who will be prepared for the workforce and life.
“We want this to propel them into, when it’s over, you can still come to me to help you with your resume,” Tynes said. “You can still come to me if you want that job pushing carts, or at Walmart, or something else.”
Tynes said he cares about more than taking home the gold.
“Success would be the gold medal, but I’m successful if one of my guys gets a job,” he said. “Sometimes a person with a disability is the best person for the job.”
Owens credits the whole program – not just the team – for the Warriors’ success.
“I just hope that me and my team get remembered, and everybody that’s on this journey,” Owens said. “I want the spotlight to shine on me and my team, not just me. I’m nothing without my teammates, from the staff, to the people that volunteer, and the people who donate.”
The program is focused on a core message: “turning disabilities into capabilities.”
“People with disabilities love, people with disabilities work, people with disabilities have families, and can play basketball well,” Tynes said.
With this message, the program wants everyone to know that people with disabilities are capable of anything.
“There’s people with disabilities, but at the end of the day we’re all humans,” Pineda said.
This story is part of a partnership between Cambridge Day and the Boston University Department of Journalism.
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