Huntington Booster Club to Honor Linda Roth
The Huntington Booster Club will honor Linda Costello-Roth for her exceptional efforts on behalf of Huntington’s Special Olympians at the organization’s seventh annual dinner on Friday, October 17 at the Huntington Crescent Club.
Mrs. Roth has been a special education teacher, department chairperson and soccer and lacrosse coach for many years. She will be recognized along with retired district physical education and athletic coach Steve Davis, who has also spent countless hours volunteering with the Special Olympics.
Details concerning the October 17 dinner are expected to be announced soon. The evening will include a cocktail hour, hot meal, music and dancing. Last fall’s event honoring John Paci, Jr. and Mary Paar drew a crowd of 240.
Born in Brooklyn, Mrs. Roth moved to Huntington in 1970 and attended Village Green School, Huntington Elementary School, Woodhull Elementary School, J. Taylor Finley Junior High School and Huntington High School, graduating with the Class of 1982.
An outstanding athlete at a young age, Mrs. Roth played on the Finley volleyball, basketball and softball teams and starred on the boys’ soccer team, since there was no girls’ squad at the time.
Mrs. Roth continued her sports career at Huntington High School, playing on the field hockey, volleyball and basketball teams. She captained the first Blue Devil girls’ soccer team as a senior.
The Huntington alum earned an undergraduate degree in business management at Hartwick College in Oneonta and a graduate degree in special education at LIU-C.W. Post. “It was at Post that I realized my passion was working with children, particularly those with special needs,” Mrs. Roth said.
The veteran educator began her teaching career at Finley Middle School in 1992. She obtained a state administrator’s certificate in 2003. She’s coached boys’ and girls’ soccer, tennis, lacrosse and volleyball at Finley and field hockey and lacrosse at the high school.
Consistent with her passion to serve the young people of the community, Mrs. Roth has immersed herself in the Special Olympics program, coaching Huntington High School floor hockey, track and field and snowshoe teams. “The past two winters, the Huntington snowshoe team has enjoyed particularly strong showings at the Special Olympics New York State Winter Games,” she said.
As the Special Olympics program continues to grow in the district, Mrs. Roth will undoubtedly be playing a major role in any future success Huntington’s athletes might achieve.
As a district special education chairperson, Mrs. Roth now has a new goal: to bring a Unified sports program to Huntington. “Unified is a fast-growing initiative that brings people with and without intellectual disabilities together on the same team to compete side-by-side,” she said.
Huntington’s Special Olympians have been honored by the Huntington School Board and Huntington Town Board. Their classmates treat them like celebrities. When the group was recognized during halftime of a basketball game last winter, the teenagers received a standing ovation.
Mrs. Roth said she plans to work nine more years before retiring. That’s an awful lot of time for her Special Olympic athletes to win an additional horde of gold, silver and bronze medals. Considering her energy and enthusiasm and motivational skills, such an outcome seems inevitable.