The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Special Olympics Basketball tourney coming to high school
Lorain High School will host an innovative basketball tournament March 21 that will highlight inclusion and bringing together people of all abilities.
The Unified Special Basketball Tournament is expected to attract about 175 students from four other high schools.
And the unique technique has been picking up steam.
“The Unified Special Olympics Basketball Tournament is just another example of the inclusive, welcoming nature of our school leaders and our community,” said Lorain Mayor Chase Ritenauer. “I can think of no better place for the tournament.”
Special Olympians will compete alongside Lorain varsity athletes with assistant basketball coach Matt Kielian, and football coaches Brian Clark and Ed Hall.
Kielian emphasized it was an opportunity for him to set an example for his players and the young people in this community.
“It’s an opportunity for our kids to give of themselves,” he said. “And that’s one of things that we’re definitely trying to instill in our young people; is the ability to give themselves and to be selfless.
“We will have the opportunity to showcase our hospitality. There’s a lot of special things that are happening with our school and our community, and it’s just another opportunity to showcase how our kids are.”
The unified nature of the tournament is unique from traditional Special Olympics competitions, according to Dan Blatt, intervention specialist at Lorain High.
The format allows Special Olympic athletes to interact and work with different people in the building, Blatt said.
A diverse section of the student body are getting involved ranging from student council, the cheerleading squad and different athletics teams, he said.
Each team will consist of three Special Olympians and two other student athletes.
Lorain High will go up against teams from Rocky River High, Max S. Hayes High in Cleveland, John Marshall High in Cleveland and Lincoln-West High in Cleveland.
Blatt, who has been at Lorain High the past seven years, said the tournament, which has been going on for three years, is a big deal for the district.
It’s also an opportunity to highlight programs in the school system and the good work being done in supporting inclusion, he said.
“We have quite a few Special Olympians, so they want it to be more of a competitive thing,” Blatt said. “It’s going to be a pretty big event. We’re excited.”
Blatt added Lorain is hosting the tournament for the first time and his students have been preparing with hard and are looking forward to competing.
“Their smiles say it all,” he said. “They just love being part of things and ... they’re competing on the same team as talented athletes, they just love it. They love to be included.”
The tournament has evolved since its inaugural year and has embraced a more competitive team environment while being fun at the same time.
“It truly is a team atmosphere and they love being a part of that,” Blatt said. “When they put on the uniform, that means something. It’s a win-win for everybody.”
The tournament will start at 9:30 a.m. and conclude at 1 p.m.
The games will last 30 minutes.
Two games will run simultaneously on both the main gym and the small gym.
All teams will enjoy lunch at the Lighthouse Grille.
According to the Special Olympics website https:// www.specialolympics.org/ unified-sports.aspx, Special Olympics is dedicated to promoting social inclusion through shared sports training and competition experiences.
Unified Sports joins people with and without intellectual disabilities on the same team.
It was inspired by a simple principle: training together and playing together is a quick path to friendship and understanding.
In Unified Sports, teams are made up of people of similar age and ability.
That makes practices more fun and games more challenging and exciting for all participants, according to the Special Olympics.
Having sport in common is just one more way that preconceptions and false ideas are swept away, the website says.
And basketball is one of the top sports in the Special Olympics, the website says.
More and more U.S. states are adopting the Unified Sports approach that Special Olympics pioneered.
Unified Sports also is an integral part of Special Olympics Unified Champion Schools, which was founded in 2008 and funded through the U.S. Office of Special Education Programs at the U.S. Department of Education to use Special Olympics as a way to build inclusion and tolerance in schools.
About 1.4 million people worldwide take part in Unified Sports, breaking down stereotypes about people with intellectual disabilities in a really fun way, according to the Special Olympics.
The Unified Special Basketball Tournament schedule will be held at Lorain High School, 2600 Ashland Ave. in Lorain.