They arrived as winners and left in much the same fashion last week when the Camp Shriver Sport Camps played out on the grounds of Kingswood Manor off Lee Road in Winter Park. Special Olympics athletes received a customary standing ovation at the conclusion of each day, just as they received each morning from a group of high school volunteers playing the role of “Unified Sports Partners.”

Two female high school soccer players with ties to East Orlando were recently named to the list of elite pro prospects by the Orlando Sharks indoor soccer team. Among the top performing athletes selected to the team was Timber Creek midfielder and recent graduate Jessica Monarch, who made the 2007-08 Elite 11 Pro Prospects list as one of only three girls selected from Orange County.

In a day and age where the common athlete at nearly every level is becoming bigger than the sports they play, leave it to Special Olympics to put it all into perspective. For the participants and their coaches, the scoreboard doesn’t mean as much as just having the chance to get out and play.

A week after the Orlando Predators backed their way into the Arena Football League’s postseason, for the 17th straight year, it all came to an end on Monday night while on the road in Cleveland. Three failed extra-point attempts, two bad kicks and one bad snap, and three crucial turnovers in the red zone sent the Preds back home with a 69-66 setback.

With the month of August quickly approaching, UCF football fans are in for a treat as the Knights’ O’Zone Ticket Package returns for its second year. The purchase of season tickets in sections 119 and 120 in Bright House Networks Stadium’s north endzone gives fans an extra reward through a group of limited six-game ticket packages.

Life is too short. I’m beginning to realize that the older I get. But leave it to a trip back home and a little fun at a ballpark to let the thought really sink in. The time I had off made me remember an answer that a youth baseball player gave to a question I asked a group of kids a few months back. “Every time I start to feel like it’s starting to get boring, something happens to make it so much fun again,” the middle schooler said in response to how they keep interested in competing for their travel team.

Last week Kim Young instructed a youth camp at the Wedgefield Golf Club. Next week he’ll be teeing up against Greg Norman, Curtis Strange, Fuzzy Zoeller and others at the U.S. Senior Open in Colorado Springs after qualifying at a tournament in Lake Wales, Fla. On Monday he’ll begin his practice rounds before the real action gets underway a week from today at The Broadmoor.

The Florida Collegiate Summer­ League hosted its fifth all-star game at Historic Sanford Memorial Stadium over the weekend with the West All-Stars coming out on top, 3-1. The West All-Stars got out to an early lead with a three-run homer in the first inning and finished with 11 hits in the win, while the East All-Stars managed just four hits on the night.

It’s been over 20 years since Michael Williams first fired up the engine of a race car. He remembers the good ol’ days of Orlando SpeedWorld racing, when 40 cars in each class made up the field on any given Friday night. Though those days appear to be gone as the cost of fuel has taken its toll on tracks around the country.

Reflex Gymnastics is losing a special talent in less then two weeks when 9- year-old Bayley Wilson and her family relocate to Plano, Texas, to further the development of her gymnastics skills. After picking up the sport nearly five years ago and since training under Richard Masters at Reflex Gymnastics on Narcoossee Road, Wilson was granted an impromptu tryout at the World Olympic Gymnastics Academy (WOGA) near Dallas, from which she was handpicked by Olympic gold medalist Valeri Liukin as one of 11 kids to join the academy team.