On Board Online • June 9 2014

By Cathy Woodruff
Senior Writer

Amid the squeak of sneakers and a series of frustrating turnovers on the basketball court, Coach Audra DiBacco was urging her players to get their heads back in the game.

“What is going on right now?” she called out before chiding her players a bit. “We should have practiced yesterday!”

Then, she took a more direct approach: “If you’re missing shots, keep shooting. Keep shooting!”

When the final buzzer sounded, DiBacco’s squad from Columbia High School in the East Greenbush Central School District had poured on just enough steam to pull out a victory over the rival Spartans from Queensbury. It was a relatively low-scoring game for both teams, 20-17, but it enabled the East Greenbush players to cement a winning season.

Although the game appeared typical, it wasn’t. On this day at Shenendehowa High School in Clifton Park, all the teams included students with and without intellectual disabilities. It’s called Unified Sports, and it’s part of a collaboration between high school athletics and the Special Olympics organization.

Most of the players never had been part of a school basketball team – or any sort of organized sport – before this spring. About 180 students from 12 school districts in Section 2 participated in the pilot season.

Only a handful of similar collaborations have been tried nationally. A unique twist in New York is the involvement of New York’s state regulatory authority for interscholastic athletics, the New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA).

“We were a little leery, at first,” when discussions with NYSPHAA began, said Nathan Johnson, director of program for Special Olympics New York in the Capital District and North Country regions. He said NYSPHAA officials soon allayed the concerns.

“We said we were only interested if it was legitimate, authentic, competitive sports,” Johnson recalled. “They said, ‘That’s what we do.’”

For NYSPHAA, the Unified Sports program represents a new way to enable more students to participate in interscholastic sports, said Todd Nelson, an assistant director with the association.

“We are all about promoting student athletes, and this program allows us to promote a spectrum of student athletes who have not been highlighted in the past,” he said.

A Unified Sports program offers a new opportunity for all team members, not just athletes with disabilities, the organizers note. Under state rules, players without disabilities, who are called “partners,” may not play on a regular-season team for the same sport. Partners include students who play other sports and some who haven’t previously played on a team at all.

Team members with disabilities are known as “athletes,” and the rules require that at least three of the five players on the court at any time are athletes.

The parameters for determining which players are athletes vary from school to school. They may be students who are in special education classes or are in regular classrooms with individual education plans (IEPs) or those who have autism or other conditions that tend to make team sports more challenging, Johnson said.

In reality, it’s not necessarily clear to a spectator which students are athletes and which are partners when they’re passing or shooting or rebounding. That’s part of the point.

“Our goal is to not have you know,” said Johnson. “A lot of individuals with intellectual disabilities don’t look any different than other students. Some have physical challenges, and some don’t.”

Either way, coaches say their teams have gelled remarkably well, and the players are delighting in building new skills and new friendships.

Columbia’s Ryan Snyder, a 14-year-old forward, said he’s always loved basketball but has not played on an organized team before. Spending time with new friends is among the best parts of being on the squad, he and 17-year-old teammate Maggie Roarke, agreed.

Both athletes are honing skills DiBacco stresses in practice. Roarke said she enjoys working on layups and a maneuver known as the three-person weave.

Both students have impressed their coach with their dedication. Snyder “has improved in his confidence within himself to make strong moves to the hoop and rebounding,” said DiBacco, a social worker in East Greenbush schools and varsity girls basketball coach at a parochial high school.

Roarke, usually shy and reserved, has become “a force to be reckoned with” in a sport she previously knew little about, DiBacco said. “Maggie made two huge shots in our home game to solidify a win against Shen with her home crowd watching,” said the coach.

And while winning is great, the coaches and organizers say, players also gain from the experience when they don’t.

“The biggest pitfall that we knew was out there was the potential for patronization, that other players and coaches would treat the kids with disabilities with kid gloves on the court,” Johnson said. “We want our coaches aiming to win the game. The idea is we win as a team and we lose as a team.”

While students with intellectual disabilities may have had chances to participate in Special Olympics, the coaches say that’s different from being part of a team that represents your school.

At Shenendehowa, Coach Carley Galarneau said she sees her players gaining social confidence as they share the same types of experiences and attention that regular-season athletes enjoy.

“It’s the little things that make a big difference,” the coach said. “Getting on a bus with the team, hearing your name announced, wearing a school uniform, having write-ups in the school newspaper. The players have been wearing their jerseys around the school.”

At Queensbury, many players wear a shirt and tie to school on game day, just as members of some regular-season teams do, noted Coach Bob Dean.

Officials with NYSPHSAA and Special Olympics already are thinking about how they will develop Unified Sports in future seasons.

Johnson said a pre-season “assessment tool” might be used to set up more consistently competitive match-ups. He also expects further development of an individual skills event, which offers competition for students who have difficulty playing as part of a team.

NYSPHSAA is examining the potential for Unified competition in other sports, and Section 5 already has expressed interest in trying out the concept.

“We’re pretty excited. We think it’s got a bright future,” Nelson said. “Based on the success we had this year, I will make a recommendation to the executive committee to approve Unified Sports as a program under NYSPHSAA authority.”

“Finding a way for these kids to participate in interscholastic athletics – to wear a uniform and represent their school – is priceless,” said Shenendehowa Athletic Director Chris Culnan. “Figure out a way to do it. That would be my recommendation.”