What Christian Quintanar brings to his Special Olympics floor hockey team is something that can’t be taught.
He brings great vision, said his coach Jaime Artiaga.
Quintanar was honored as the Special Olympics Athlete of the Month at Monday’s Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table press luncheon at Harry’s Plaza Cafe.
Quintanar made an immediate impact in his first year of playing floor hockey.
“He did really well in the first two tournaments we had,” Artiaga said. “We can train the basic skills, but for Christian, what you can’t teach is vision. He has his head up, he knows how to pass the puck and protect the puck. That’s something I can’t teach him.
“It’s a great pleasure to give him this award.”
Santa Barbara teams took a second and fourth place at the Southern California floor hockey championships over the weekend in Orange County.
Tim Philibosian of Special Olympics said the annual regional basketball tournament is on Sunday, March 18 at UCSB’s Thunderdome. The event will feature 40 teams from all over Southern California, including three from Santa Barbara.
The action starts at 9 a.m. and runs through 4 p.m.
— Noozhawk sports editor Barry Punzal can be reached at {encode=”bpunzal@noozhawk.com” title=”bpunzal@noozhawk.com”}. Follow Noozhawk Sports on Twitter: @NoozhawkSports. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
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