The Arizona school system has partnered with the state’s Special Olympics organization on a unique program that brings students with disabilities together with other high school students in competitive athletics.
Launched just this past June, the Unified Sports® program was constructed as an opportunity for students to interact with peers with whom they share school spirit, but almost never in the same classrooms. East Valley Tribune reporter Stacie Spring writes the program already has participation from roughly one-third of all Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA) member institutions, and the goal is 100% participation in the next three years.
Sports currently offered in the program include flag football, track and field, basketball, cheerleading, and golf. The schools provide the facilities and volunteers do the coaching. A grant from Special Olympics International funds team jerseys and other costs with additional support from the AIA.
Special Olympics Arizona CEO Tim Martin tells Spring the costs are “minimal” compared to their benefits:
By getting students involved and getting them to know and build friendships with athletes with mental disabilities, it’s no longer a pity party… Instead, it gets people to say, ‘Let’s appreciate the great in everybody.’
Arizona schools already have programs in place that bring the two student groups together in social situations. Spring talks to Dillon and Darian, two young ladies in the town of Ahwatukee Foothills who have grown a friendship through the Best Buddies program. Unified Sports® provides the chance for them to work together toward a common goal with other teenagers, and gives students like Dillon an experience not previously available on the high school level: the thrilling sensation of being cheered on by your friends and family.
Being different is a perpetual concern for teenagers of any stripe. Under the wrong circumstances, how youth dress, look, or spend their time can make them a target for bullying. Under the right circumstances, being different can become a touchstone for self-esteem and respect.
Jason Commack of New York sums up the pluses perfectly in his first-person article, “Being Different,” on the Teen Ink website:
Something about feeling useful, needed, and purposeful is rewarding to me, and probably to others too. If I am unique, then I can fill some niche better than any other person. If I am just like everyone else, then any niche I fill could probably be filled just as well by someone else, and so I would cease to be useful and needed.
Programs like Unified Sports® give venues to instill the bonding experience of high school athletics and fosters the adoption of a mindset that values the uniqueness of an individual described by Jason. Imagine the positive impact of this experience down the line when these teenagers transition into adulthood and people with disabilities work side-by-side with others, or train for jobs, or interview for employment.
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Image by hectorir (Hector Alejandro), used under its Creative Commons license.