As a member of the Basketeers team that will represent Region 12 at the Special Olympics Ontario Spring Games later this month at Durham College and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Sexton won't have to travel far from his Oshawa home in order to compete.
A veteran of sorts, having also participated in the previous Spring Games in Peterborough, Sexton is looking forward to the support he knows he will get from family and friends once basketball tips off on May 30.
"I think that's going to be the best part of it all, that all my family and friends that never get to come and travel around, they'll all be able to come and support me and cheer me on," he says. "I think it's going to be great and I'm really excited just to be a part of it."
Sexton is one of the many beneficiaries of the Games' Adopt-an-Athlete program, which sees businesses sponsor an athlete for $1,000 each.
Metroland's Durham Region Media Group is Sexton's sponsor.
"That's what it's all about, the athletes," says Chuck Mercier, the chairman of the Games, who figures nearly $1 million will be raised through the program. "They're just spectacular. They're celebrities, they're true to their sport, they're true to their families and they're true to our communities."
Sexton has been playing basketball for about six years now, introduced to the Special Olympics while in elementary school.
He is an identical twin who was born two months early and, deprived of oxygen either during or before delivery, diagnosed with cerebral palsy when he was five months old.
Now a Grade 12 student at Monsignor Paul Dwyer Catholic High School, he has been a tremendous role model and spokesman for the Special Olympics through speaking engagements at the Grandview Children's Centre and, of course, as a competitor at the Games.
"I enjoy speaking about what it's like to have a disability so I can let people know I am just a regular guy who unfortunately has a disability that makes me walk different than others," he said in a written submission. "Special Olympics gives me the chance to be part of a team and to work hard physically and to the best of my ability."
