Rogers Park Middle School extends its Unified Sports program
Rogers Park Middle School students had the opportunity to participate in Unified Sports Soccer this season – and the overwhelming support from students will see that the program continues at least through the end of this school year.
“It was such a success that we have decided we must extend the program,” said Cristina Brás Taylor, special services facilitator at Rogers Park and Westside Middle School Academy.
The school will next offer basketball followed by track and field. This season there were 11 student-athletes on two teams.
“It is not an exaggeration to say that each and every one of us who participated in this venture gained a tremendous amount from this experience,” Taylor said. “It is the reason that we are now committed to continuing the program. Our next step is to have our athletes present to seventh- and eighth-grade school assemblies at RPMS and share their experience. Our goal is to double our numbers for the basketball season.”
According to its website, “Unified Sports® is a registered program of Special Olympics. It is a program that combines approximately equal numbers of athletes with and without an intellectual disability on sports teams for training and competition. All Unified Sports® players, both athletes, and Unified partners, are of similar age and matched by sports skill ability. Unified Sports® teams are placed in competitive divisions based on their skill abilities, ranging from training divisions (focused on skill-learning) to high-level competition.” In 1992, Special Olympics Connecticut together with the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference worked to bring the program to public and parochial schools throughout the state.
“Our entire focus is to promote the inclusion of people of all abilities in all aspects of school and life and to promote our belief that ‘inclusion speaks louder than words.’ We also aim to develop the leadership skills of our students so that they will continue to promote this message long beyond middle school,” said Dr. Kristy Zaleta, associate principal for instruction at Rogers Park. “We had eighth-grade students sign up to be part of the program to work with our special needs students. They practiced together and played together in a tournament.”
Broadview Middle School has participated in Unified Sports for the past 17 years, and last year was named the Unified Sports Michael’s Cup Middle School of the Year.