Unified Sports will be starting fundraising to help support the organization and community support is needed.
Unified sports allows people with and without intellectual disabilities to join together on one team to play a sport. There are different types of unified sports: Competitive Unified sports, Player Development Unified Sports, and Unified Sports Recreation. There are a few differences between the three types of Unified sports, one being that in competitive sports, all partners (individuals without intellectual disabilities) and athletes (individuals with intellectual disabilities) are required to have the necessary sport-specific skills and tactics to compete without modifications of the current Special Olympics Sports rules. Also, in competitive sports, players have the opportunity to advance to regional or world games.
In Unified Sports Player Development, there are an equal amount of athletes and players combined on a team that is designed for training and competition. The difference between this and the other two types is in this one, teammates aren’t required to be of similar abilities, and teammates of higher abilities serve as mentors to assist teammates of lower abilities in developing sport-specific skills.
Finally, there is the Unified Sports Recreation. This consists of inclusive recreational sports opportunities for Special Olympic athletes and partners. This type is different from the others in that there are no prescribed training, competition, and/or team composition requirements established by Special Olympics.
Belleville High School participates in between the Competitive and Play Development types of Unified Sports. The team has been around for the past few years, although it was around before, it just started back up in the 2022-2023 school year. This year, the team will be fundraising for the opportunity to play at Little Ceasars Arena. They will start fundraising as much as possible now and continue for next month. The game will take place on January 31st at noon. There will be three follow-up games after our Unified Tigers play, which will be with teams from other schools. Those who play in the game will receive a ticket to the Pistons game later that night at seven p.m.
The Unified Team also will be fundraising for another event, the Polar Plunge, taking place on February 18th during school hours. This is an event welcome to anyone who attends Belleville and wants to participate. Students of Peer-to-Peer and Teachers will collect pledges and will then jump into an ice-cold water tank. The event will benefit our Unified Basketball Team and Special Olympics.
The hope is for the Unified program at Belleville to expand and create new opportunities for more to participate. Some of these opportunities include Unified Bowling and Unified Robotics, and we also have a crafting team operating with Mrs. Testorelli. We currently have Unified Basketball, Unified Esports, and Unified Field Day. Some classes we have include Unified Physical Education and Art. We hope to continue to expand and bring more awareness to both the Special Olympics and the Unified program as a whole at Belleville.
