Last week, the Fossil Ridge High School Unified Basketball team faced off against the Rocky Mountain High School Lobos. They faced a tough loss, 42-44 after half an hour of competition. However, the players that left the court weren’t as upset as one would expect having lost to their crosstown rivals. In fact, the Unified team’s priorities were quite different than your average Basketball teams. According to Kim Eberhart, head coach, “This team is all about learning, having fun and showing compassion.”
Unified sports bring the school community together, and Fossil prides itself on that same sense of community. Student council put on Diversity Day earlier this year. Bullying and teasing face a strict no-tolerance policy. Students attend all sorts of sports and activities, from the football games to the bonfire. However, a marginalized group is being left out of this community, and the first step to change is simply showing support for the kids with disabilities at our school. As Jake McCartney, one of the members of the Unified team, put it, “I think that Unified Basketball gives people with disabilities a chance to be out in the world and prove themselves.” This team gives every coach, player, and fan a chance to feel like they belong.
Eberhart has worked at Fossil for eight years and coached Unified Basketball for four. The importance of Unified to the school community, in her mind, is that, “It is teaching the community and the school that we are all the same. That all of us are just people doing the best we can at the things we try.” That unity is what holds the community together. The realization that we all matter equally is hard to come to, but necessary for equality to be achieved. Unity and individuality can coexist, and indeed have to for the world to function.
Elise Parker is a senior and a part of the advisory class that organized the Unified Kickoff game. She ran the raffle booth, and her favorite part was how thankful the parents were that their children were getting special recognition. She thinks it’s important for students to attend Unified games because, “Our school shows a lot of support for other sports, and so these are kids that often get unappreciated and overlooked … [going to these games shows] that we do care about them, that we know that they’re here, and we acknowledge that they work really hard.”
Several weeks ago, the video production team at Fossil created a promotional video to advertise for the game. It never aired, but provides a powerful view of some of the most overlooked students at our school. Four players were interviewed, and their responses are those of any athlete, and person, who simply wants to be noticed by the community around them. Joey Maddocks was asked why people should come to the game. He turned the question back on the cameras, stating, “Because it helps support the whole team… say, if you make a shot and there’s no one there, who’s going to help you?” This attitude, one of teamwork and unity, is often forgotten in competitive sports. As Parker put it, “Often a lot of sports get caught up in the fact that ‘we have to win’, whereas this is more about just having fun and showing people that you can compete but it’s not always about winning.”
Next time there’s a Unified game, invite friends and family to come along. As Eberhart said, “This is a great opportunity to all be involved in something bigger than ourselves. An opportunity for everyone to realize we are all in this together and that diversity is a beautiful thing.” After all, students don’t seem to have any problem supporting good causes. At the kickoff game, more than $300 were raised during Miracle Minute, a fundraiser directed at students.
Every member of the school community deserves to feel safe and welcomed. Let’s start by showing who Fossil is, by lending support to all students, rather than the chosen few.
Change begins with you.
