From cheer to flag football, the unified sports program at Fossil Ridge High School is underappreciated by most, but an inspiration for all who are involved.
The program started roughly 13 years ago, when Fossil’s annual Special Olympics event spiraled into something more involved. It is aimed at connecting students with and without disabilities through a common love of sports, refusing to turn away any eager student regardless of circumstance or ability.
“It’s that cool piece of the Venn diagram where the best of society comes together with athletics,” said unified flag football and basketball coach Jamie Westyn, an Integrated Services teacher. “It’s an entirely unique experience.”
According to Fossil’s website, “Playing together is a quick path to friendship and understanding.” Both players and coaches are confident in the program’s success in embodying this idea.
“I see [inclusion] shine through with the relationships between peer helpers and everyone else, we all become really close friends,” said senior Julia Childs, who has been involved with unified sports since she was a freshman. “Initially you might have a hard time seeing past their disabilities, but you eventually just love them for who they are and it’s really beautiful.”
An important piece of the program is meeting students where they are at instead of forcing them to work harder than their counterparts.
“You learn that different students just participate at different levels,” said senior Jacob Schonlau, a buddy in unified sports for three years. “With some students, you’re playing soccer with them like normal, but with other ones, they just want to talk about race cars, so you end up talking about race cars. It’s a cool experience because you can connect with everybody at whatever level they’re at.”
During the last unified soccer season, for example, an athlete did not want to get up and stand on the field for pictures, so they moved all of the players and equipment to meet her on the bench for the picture there. That, to unified soccer coach and Mind Center teacher Kim Gardner, exemplifies the influential spirit of the program.
“You look at other sports and you have to be on varsity this many games to letter and, yes, there is a level of commitment and courage to get there,” said Gardner. “But who’s to say the kid with the walker or the profound physical disability isn’t working just as hard to show up?”
Despite the profound impact of the sports, many feel that they are underappreciated.
“The downside of being a nontraditional team is that sometimes it is seen as overlooked,” said Westyn. “I don’t think anybody intentionally does, but it’s just that everybody’s really busy and it’s the smallest commitment.”
Athletes like Kaitlyn Rajotte, a junior who has done unified sports for her whole high school career, also believe that more participation and appreciation is what the program needs.
“The best part is cheering as loud as we can and if there were more people we could cheer even louder,” she said. “Being a part of the excitement is so fun and spending time with my friends makes it even better.”
If more students knew the profound impact of the program, Schonlau thinks, they would be all the more eager to get involved.
“I just want more people to know about it, because I feel like so many students would sign up if they just knew that it was a thing,” Schonlau said. “It’s one of the most uplifting sporting events in existence.”
For more information on unified athletics, visit the program’s website here.
