Sports brings together students with and without disabilities

It was just another high school basketball game, one among hundreds played in McKean High School's small, slightly dank, below-ground gym. 

Sitting in the stands, next to the increasingly louder troop of cheerleaders, it soon became obvious this was something special, something unique. Parents fresh from work cheered for teams that consisted of an equal number of students with and without intellectual disabilities. 

For the first time this year, the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association and Special Olympics Delaware is holding unified basketball games, designed to bring students with and without disabilities together to train and compete in sports, experience inclusion and socialize with their peers.

If all goes well during this first pilot season, unified basketball will become an official DIAA sport in the 2018-19 school year. 

Special Olympics Delaware teamed up with DIAA about five years ago to bring unified sports to local high schools, starting with track and field and adding flag football in 2015, the organization said. By adding basketball, students can compete in unified sports throughout the school year, in the fall, winter and spring. 

“What the partnership has done, in a nutshell, is it's allowed high school students who have intellectual disabilities an opportunity to experience high school sports just like every one of their peers in high school," said Jon Buzby, director of media relations for Special Olympics Delaware. “Players that are part of these unified teams in the schools are being cheered for, they're being recognized as athletes, and they're getting the same thrills that other high school athletes do.”

Perhaps what makes unified sports so special is that the students involved don't necessarily think it is anything special. 

They're just focused on the game and working together as a team to win it. 

"We play as a team, and we have fun," Newark Charter School senior Isaiah Anderson said. His team was facing off against McKean's Wednesday. 

Emma Ueltzhoffer, a 10th grader from Newark Charter School who also plays lacrosse, said she is part of the school's Respect Club, which supports the growth and expansion of school-based inclusion programs and empowers individuals with and without intellectual disabilities to engage in sports.  

"Everybody wants to win," she said. "Everybody works as hard in the gym and everybody trains just as hard." 

"I think it's taught me how to be team player and respect other players more." 

Brandon Ferrara, a senior at McKean, plays unified flag football in the fall and is also on the school's varsity baseball team. He's in the school's Best Buddies program, which builds one-to-one friendships between people with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities. 

"Round school, I'll see some of the unified flag football players, who I usually wouldn't see or talk to," he said, talking about the relationships he's built with his fellow players and how unified sports have made the school more united as a whole. 

Isaiah Dunbar, a junior at McKean, said playing unified sports was just another way for him to enjoy himself at school.  

He didn't look at unified sports specifically as a way to create new opportunities for students with disabilities, but as a vehicle for all students, regardless of their background, to dribble and shoot. 

"It takes your mind off things, say you're having a bad day, it makes you feel better," he said. "Some of these kids don't have courts around their houses and can't play." 

On the court, the students get competitive. In that way, they are no different from students on the school's junior varsity and varsity teams. 

Matt Carre, athletic director at McKean, said unified athletes are varsity players. They're the stars. They're the key athletes. 

This isn't tokenism, he said, where athletes with disabilities are included in a sport, but only allowed to play when the team is ahead and in no danger of losing or used to create the perception of equality and inclusion. 

"They're able to be leaders on the team, with significant playing time," he said. "They spend the majority of the time on the field, versus just a few seconds at the end of the game." 

"Half the roster is students with disabilities, half the roster is students without. It's full inclusion." 

"It's life-changing for the students that participate." 

For students without disabilities "It gives them a different perception," he said. "It teaches them empathy."  

Parents said it gave students of all skill levels a chance to compete. 

Elaine Ambra said her eighth-grade son, Anthony Ambra, was probably one of the youngest players on Newark Charter's team. 

"But they don't intimidate them," she said. "They help him." 

She said Anthony plays flag football outside of school but now wants to join the school's DIAA team. 

Teresa Tressler said both her son and daughter have long been involved with Special Olympics and play on some of the organization's unified sports teams, which are separate from those offered at the school and have been around for a lot longer.

Her daughter, Hannah Tressler, is now on the unified basketball team at Newark Charter School, which has a slightly different look and feel. 

"To be able to play with DIAA and be on the school team means a lot to her," Teresa Tressler said. "She's elated. She's so happy. She loves school. She loves playing with all her friends." 

"And it exposes those students to a special needs student and shows them they are more alike then they are different." 

Kylie Frazer, who oversees Special Olympics Delaware's Unified Champion School program, said the organization's goals is to eventually have one unified sports team at every high school in Delaware. 

There are currently 12 unified flag football teams, six basketball teams and 18 track and field teams. 

There will be a unified basketball showcase on Feb. 23 at Middletown High School featuring all six teams. 

Caesar Rodney and Newark charter tip of at 4 p.m., followed by Cape Henlopen and McKean at 5:30 p.m. Appoquinimink and Middletown square off in the 7 p.m. nightcap. 

The three games will be streamed live by 302 Sports on YouTube, which is donating the cost of the production and broadcast. 

The event is free and open to the public. 

Contact Jessica Bies at (302) 324-2881 or jbies@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @jessicajbies.Looking for more education news? Visit delawareonline.com/education. Submit story ideas at delonline.us/2i2tugB. 

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