Multi-sport athlete Kiondre Brown still tears up about the day his unified flag football team dumped water all over him during an interview after winning a bronze medal at the 2022 Special Olympics USA Games.
Four years later, Brown arrived at the games again Thursday as a member of the Alachua All Stars, a unified basketball team, competing at the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games in Minneapolis.
Special Olympics Florida provides year-round Olympic-type sports training and competition for people with intellectual disabilities, aiming to help them become productive members of society by providing the athletes an opportunity to develop and demonstrate their skills, according to their mission statement.
Brown, 29, nears 12 years with the program and can’t imagine his life without it.
“This is my community,” Brown said. “There’s a lot of things [for] people [to be] proud of. The experience with the Special Olympics program means something to you.
“When I was 17 years old, I didn’t think this was going [to] carry my legacy, but now I know it. There’s been a lot of people that look up to me [since] then. ”
Consisting of four unified partners, University of Florida students or recent graduates, and six local Special Olympics athletes, the team qualified after taking home gold in their division at the 2024 State Summer Games.
The Special Olympics USA Games features programs from across the nation, competing in 16 sports.
“It gives our athletes a place where they can shine, where they’re away from the fear of discrimination and just to where their abilities are celebrated,” said Evan Combs, the senior manager sports training and competition for the Northeast region. “This is super important to their lives; it provides meaningful friendships.”
The team takes the court Monday against Team Indiana, then faces Maryland on Tuesday and Texas on Wednesday. Ahead of competition, the All Stars practiced every week for two hours since January, working on plays and team chemistry.
They enter Minneapolis with the intention of winning, but place emphasis on building new connections. Coach Jordyn Zyngier and her coaching staff made bingo cards with tasks that encourage the players to go out of their comfort zones.
“I’m hoping this inspires them and incentivizes them to get out and try new things, meet new people, take new pictures, make new memories and come home with stories that don’t involve people that they practice and play the same sports with,” Zyngier said.
During the UF Intramural season that began in March, the Alachua All Stars played against groups of volunteers to challenge themselves. The team also participated in regional and state games.
Across the season, Ethan Faerman, a unified partner and the incoming UF Special Olympics club president, noticed players growing closer and competing as a team instead of individually with athletes like Brown and his teammate Willard Riley Jr. stepping up as leaders.
“Everyone just wanted to play basketball by themselves but as we’ve gotten to the practice this week, everyone’s loud, everyone’s cheering each other on and everyone’s playing good defense and communicating,” Faerman said.
Brown joined the organization at 17 years old through the Sidney Lanier Center. Apart from basketball Brown competed in golf, volleyball and track and field events. In 2023, under Combs’ lead, Kiondre’s basketball team represented Team USA at the 2023 Special Olympics World Games in Berlin.
With experience at big events, Brown enjoys offering teammates guidance.
“I’m just going to show them the direction,” Brown said. “It just reminds me of 2022 and 2023, when you’re a leader at the Special Olympics you’re going to tell your team everything is going to be all right. Everything doesn’t go your way. ”
After serving as an assistant coach in 2025, Zyngier stepped into the head coach role this season. Zyngier began volunteering with Special Olympics over a decade ago while growing up in Michigan, but wanted to continue her journey when she moved to work at UF Health.
She played basketball in middle and high school, so teaching players fundamentals came naturally, but the All Stars’ high-level playing ability inspired her to implement new plays and systems on the court. When Combs initially approached her with the coaching opportunity, she needed a push to take on the larger role.
“He definitely pushed me [like] that’s too bad this is the opportunity that I have so take it or leave it,” Zyngier said. “I’m really glad he did because it allowed me to be a part of this and it put me into the shoes that now have me walking myself into an airplane to go to USA games.”
Combs started in Zyngier’s position, coaching Brown’s basketball and football teams from 2019 to 2023 before joining Special Olympics staff. At 12 years old, he volunteered at his first Special Olympics event and continued throughout high school, but got more involved with the unified program through the UF club. The community sticks out to Combs because it serves as a place for people of all skill levels.
“Our unified sports program is super important because not only are Special Olympics athletes being meaningfully included in sport and dealing with people without disabilities, but our unified partners that come in, learn that there’s a lot more that makes us similar than what makes us different,” Combs said. “When you see a team like Kiondre’s basketball team out there, you can’t really tell who’s a Special Olympics athlete, who might have a disability, and who’s a unified partner, who doesn’t.”
Combs coached Brown at the 2023 NIRSA Collegiate Unified Nationals at the University of Maryland, where Brown won tournament Most Valuable Player after averaging 27 points per game across five games. Combs always viewed Brown as a standout athlete, but values Brown’s personal growth more, watching him grow socially and step up as a leader.
Brown started working at Subway seven years ago and mows lawns during the week while staying responsible for dropping his niece and nephews to school everyday. He built many meaningful relationships through the program but is especially grateful for the relationship he developed with Combs.
“I met this dude seven years [ago] and he saved [me] so I would say thank you to him,” Brown said. “He was my first actual friend because he’s like the best bro I’ve ever had.”
Many team members have deep roots within the community. Faerman spent most of his childhood volunteering with Special Olympics because of his older sister, who has Down syndrome.
Zyngier grew up alongside Special Olympics athletes after meeting her best friend, who has autism, in second grade. Throughout middle and high school, Zyngier worked with students in cognitively impaired classrooms through a best buddies program. With Special Olympics being a cornerstone of her life, she finds it hard to hold back tears at the big events.
“My athletes make fun of me all the time because I am such a crier,” Zyngier said. “The ceremonies at ESPN, they’ve got fireworks and people are singing, dancing and lifting each other up. You just see this incredible network of inclusion, and I cry every single time because it is just so powerful.
“My athletes have already said, ‘I want to make sure I sit by you during the ceremony so I can take a video when you’re crying.’”
Brown doesn’t intend to stop playing anytime soon, and remains grateful for the organization’s impact on his life.
“[Through] this program my life has changed,” Brown said. “It made me a better person.”
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