MBHS junior representing state at Special Olympics Nationals

Mountain Brook athletics teams have played all across the state and even the Southeast. But this July, one student will make his — and the school district’s — debut in Seattle, Washington for the Special Olympics USA Games: Drew Lewis.

A rising junior at the high school, Lewis will be competing in the 100- and 200-meter races for track and field. He’s one of 120 athletes to represent Alabama — 14 of whom are competing in track and field — and one of more than 4,000 athletes from across the country selected to compete starting July 1 through July 6.

Special Olympics coach and Mountain Brook Junior High physical education teacher Jane Mosakowski has been working with Lewis since 2015 and said the USA Games only come about once every four years. Mountain Brook didn’t originally have a plan in place to get to the national level through Special Olympics, but when Lewis’ mother, Dara Tribble, realized there was an opportunity to compete and attend, they worked together to establish a program. 

Mosakowski explained that in order to reach the national level, runners have to compete locally and win their heat before moving on the state level. From there, athletes have to qualify at the state level to be considered for nationals. 

The athletes are then “pulled at random” from a pool because there are so many athletes per state that are able to attend nationals, Mosakowski said. Lewis, Tribble and Mosakowski were incredibly excited when they realized Lewis was invited to compete — “I’m pretty sure the whole neighborhood heard me [yelling],” Tribble said — but they were also a little nervous. It was the good kind of nervous, though.

“It’s really a phenomenal thing, because he [Lewis] did his part as much as he could to qualify … He earned that,” she said. “It’s like anything else. You’ve got to give yourself as much opportunity to get somewhere, which he did, and then opportunity followed.”

But Lewis wasn’t always a runner. 

Lewis has dyspraxia, Tribble said, which is a developmental coordination disorder. “He really didn’t walk until he was almost 2,” Tribble said. She and his father would have to help him walk around the house. “So the fact that he’s running track, doing anything with track [is amazing],” she said. 

He entered running in first grade, where he started off with shorter distances like the 50-meter sprint. It was around third and fourth grade he got into the longer distances, Tribble said, and became more competitive. Lewis said the thing he enjoys most about running is feeling the wind on his face and in his hair.

Lewis grew to favor the 100- and 200-meter races and has matured to be a confident, driven and focused runner, he and Mosakowski agreed. He learned more about the sport over the years and practiced more.

He said his favorite memory is winning two gold medals at the Alabama Special Olympics Games in 2016, which were also in the 100- and 200-meter races. That was when the competitiveness kicked in, Mosakowski and Tribble said.

“You see that look in his eye,” Mosakowski said of Lewis when he competes. “It kicks in to this whole other speed, this other gear.”

He won gold in both those events at this year’s Games, too. And when Lewis gets to Seattle this July, he said he has one goal in mind: to beat everyone and make Alabama proud.

“Drew’s going to be a great representative for Mountain Brook on the field and off the field,” Mosakowski said. “I’m confident of that.”