April 2, 2024
By Heath Scofield

Over the past five years, the Pickerington Jaguars have brought home three state championships in Special Olympics basketball.

“We have been competing at the tournament level for five seasons,” said Coach Bryon
Beresford.

Once a team wins an Ohio championship, they get bumped to the next level, so next year this
team will ascend to Division 3.

This year the Jaguar’s Division 5 team made it to the regional semifinals and the Division 4 Team won the championship. The Jaguars also have two development level teams.

The players of the 2024 Division 4 Ohio Championship Jaguar Team are: Kage Beresford, Bryndan Jones, Josh Moen, Matthew Saavedra, Terrell Ward, Zach Miller, James Simpson and Tyson Reardon. The team was coached by Bryon Beresford and Tez Reardon.

Tyson Reardon called the win a “big accomplishment. I am very proud.”

Kage Beresford, who has played on all three of Pickerington’s championship teams, described the experience as “awesome”. He said that to him this win ties with the team’s first win for his favorite Jaguar memory because this year Josh and Matthew got to win too. (Moen and Saavedra were not on the teams that won in 2020 and 2022.)

The Jaguars’ history is as follows:
2019-2020 – South Central Regional Champion and Division 5 State Champions
2020-2021 – Covid – no season
2021-2022 – Elevated to Division 4, lost in first round of regionals
2022 – Division 1 School Age State Champions (ages 16 and under)
2022-2023 – South Central Regional Champion and State Runner Up
2023-2024 – South Central Regional Champion and Division 4 State Champions

To learn more about the Pickerington Special Olympics please email psojaguars@plsd.us or you can find them on Facebook.

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