SPORTS

Unified basketball program already a hit

Lauren Read
Free Press Staff Writer
Mount Mansfield huddles together during the Unified basketball game between Colchester and Mount Mansfield on Monday afternoon in Jericho.

The University of Vermont’s Patrick Gym is getting ready to host another high school basketball state championship game.

This one will likely look a little different than the Burlington-Rice grudge match or the crowning of the Champlain Valley dynasty in March.

The Unified basketball program, which partners students with disabilities and athletes without disabilities on the court, will hold its first state final on Tuesday, May 10.

The longtime Special Olympics event is in its first year under the umbrella of the Vermont Principals’ Association. With that comes the title game and all the other benefits of being a recognized high school sport, from bus rides to new uniforms, school announcements to certified officials.

“They wanted a competitive model and they also wanted a model where there was a winner and a loser,” said VPA associate executive director Bob Johnson. “That’s what the students wanted, they really enjoyed this competitive experience.”

Joining the VPA also comes with the sport’s own index rankings, which Mount Mansfield coach Joe O’Brien and his players spent time dissecting after Monday’s 42-24 win over Colchester.

“I don’t really know what this year’s playoffs will look like,” O’Brien said. “It will be fun.”

The victory elevated the Cougars to the No. 2 ranking in the North Division and had a couple of members of the Unified squad sounding a lot like their varsity counterparts.

“The playoffs start and we’ll see who we get for the quarterfinals,” said one MMU player. “(We want to) go all the way to finals.”

Teaming up with the VPA

A Mount Mansfield player shoots the ball during a basketball game between Colchester and Mount Mansfield on Monday afternoon in Jericho.

Unified sports have been part of Vermont athletic landscape for years, with the Special Olympics operating the program that teams up athletes with special needs and partners without developmental disabilities.

This year, though, Special Olympics and the VPA built a system that has worked well in other states across the country: Moving the Unified hoops program under the umbrella of the governing body for the state’s high school sports.

“They wanted this to run like a regular high school program,” Johnson said. “They wanted to have a league, they wanted to be able to play games, they wanted to have a tournament, they wanted to use regular certified officials.”

The two organizations decided to start with basketball, reached out to high schools across the state and started with 14 teams in late March.

Now, a month later, the league — which lost two teams as the season progressed — enters its postseason. First-round games started on Friday, with the quarterfinals expected to take place on Monday and Tuesday.

“It was taking the model that we have now for unified sports and ... now it is part of the varsity calender,” said Special Olympics sports and competition manager Justin Graham. “There is varsity basketball, JV basketball, freshman basketball and unified sports basketball. It’s no different and it’s not treated any differently than those other levels.”

The Unified sports model puts the athletes with developmental disabilities on the court with partners, who are players without special needs. The partners work with the athletes on the court, looking to create opportunities for their teammates on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball.

“The partners are basically coaches on the court, they lead by example,” O’Brien said. “Without the partners, this would not be realistic at all.”

The league allows up to two partners on the court at one time and the three other players must be athletes.

“I have a niece, she is a student at Milton and she is one of the partners,” Johnson said. “After their first game, she sent me a text and just said, ‘This was awesome, this is one of the best things that I have ever done.’”

Part of the community

Mount Mansfield head coach Joe O’Brien talks to the team during a basketball game between Colchester and Mount Mansfield on Monday afternoon in Jericho.

While the Special Olympics and VPA hammered out the details, the goal for both organizations was clear. They wanted to give athletes a chance to participate in their school’s sports community.

“They are high school students –– we are always looking for activities that students in high schools want to participate in,” Johnson said. “This is another segment of the student population.”

The VPA may be in charge of the nuts and bolts, but it is up to the individual schools and athletic directors to help the athletes feel like a member of their respective athletic programs.

“There have been games where we have had 50, 60, 70 attendees,” Graham said. “The schools are really doing an amazing job of really just owning this pilot program for this first year and really making it align with what all the sporting event’s experiences would be like.”

For the students athletes at Mount Mansfield, that means team polos and uniforms, announcements over the intercom and Twitter updates.

“It is all about making this population of athlete feel like everyone else,” O’Brien said. “It’s all about building a community and providing students with developmental disabilities an opportunity to play organized sports.”

So far, the project has been a resounding success.

“The schools that are involved will tell you, I have had half a dozen ADs tell me, that it was the best thing that they have ever done in their school,” Johnson said. “The positiveness that comes out of it, the camaraderie with the kids working with their partners, every school that I have talked to has seen nothing but positives out of this.”

A successful experiment

The positive message that has resonated throughout the schools participating in Unified basketball is exactly what Graham and the Special Olympics were hoping to see when they approached the VPA.

“Special Olympics has kind of taken a step back, which is part of what we want out of the partnership,” Graham said. “Building this into schools allows it to be sustainable. It allows it to transition and really place the responsibility on the schools to provide these types of programs for a larger population of students.”

As for the VPA, they are thinking big.

“Our hope is that the numbers are going to expand. We absolutely want to continue this.,” Johnson said. “I really see us expanding by a substantial number of schools next year.”

While the organizers are looking long term, O’Brien and his team are focused on finishing the season strong, just like everyone else.

“It’s not about the record, it’s about the camaraderie,” O’Brien said. “It’s about this population of athlete being able to boast ‘we are now playing organized sports, on a team, with a coach, with uniforms, they are keeping score, we have officials.’”

Contact Lauren Read at 660-1855 or lread1@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/laurenreadVT