HAMILTON, Michigan — Hamilton High School hosted its first-ever Unified basketball assembly on Friday for high school and middle school students.
To close out the Hamilton Unified basketball season, both Hamilton High School and Hamilton Middle School Unified athletes joined together to play an intrasquad game.
All students and staff grades 5-12 packed into the gym with signs and rally towels to see the teams play.
The assembly included t-shirt tosses, music and dancing as well.
Special Olympics Unified Sports bring students with intellectual disabilities (officially called the athletes) together with students without disabilities (officially called the partners) and put them all on the same team.
At any time during a game, an equal or greater number of athletes to partners need to be playing.
The idea behind Special Olympics Unified Sports is to not only give students with special needs a more normal experience but also to use sports as a way to build friendships and understanding among students.
Megan Petersen, a physical education and adapted PE teacher at Hamilton schools, said the teams are meant to encourage teamwork on and off the court.
"The main mission of Unified is to play together and include others," Petersen said. "So here we saw the authentic friendships on the court and then we saw the other kids learning how to just cheer for others."
Kayla Kuczynski of Special Olympics came to the game and said she enjoys seeing both the athletes and their partners benefit in so many ways.
"I think the best part of Unified sports is we have students with and without disabilities participating together," Kuczynski said. "At the same time, our Unified partners are learning how to interact with students that may be different than them, that may not be in their classes, and they're no doubt being impacted just as greatly as our athletes on the team, too."
Kuczynski also took a few minutes to speak to the assembly about the importance of inclusion and embracing one another for their different abilities.
"It is electric and contagious and all for supporting all students," Petersen said. "It's pretty cool that Hamilton pulled this off today."
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