Teams Participated in Unified Bocce and Basketball Events

Although many schools still experienced challenges organizing activities this spring, April presented an opportunity to try a couple new unified events.  A Unified Bocce competition was held for middle schools and our normal high school unified basketball season became a fun skills day followed by a 4v4 half court tournament.

Unified Bocce Teams from Stuart Academy, Westport Middle School and East Middle School were invited to participate in a unified doubles bocce tournament.  Westport Middle School hosted the event in Louisville. The Bocce matches consisted of teams attempting to get their bocce balls closer to the target ball (pallina) than the opposing team, in order to score points. The first team to score 6 points or more points than their opponents, within the time limit, won the match.  After initial onsite demonstrations by SOKY staff, 12 unified pairs practiced for the tournament and on the day of the event, 8 unified pairs were able to attend and participate.

The students and their supporters fearlessly competed through some wet and windy conditions to see who would come out victorious.  After competition had concluded, awards and t-shirts were presented along with photo ops with a Unified Bocce Champion sign. We would like to thank Westport Middle for hosting the event.

For our high schools, rather than our typical 5v5 unified basketball season, in March schools from the Louisville area participated in a fun skills event consisting of 4 skills stations.  The schools followed up this event a month later with a 4v4 half-court unified competition.

Unified teams from Doss, Ballard, Fern Creek, and Eastern High Schools came together to compete in the 4v4 Unified Basketball Event at Fern Creek High School. Similar to some of our college level Unified events, the games consisted of two ten-minute halves and each school got to play multiple games.

Teams evenly consisted of both Unified Athletes and Unified Partners and some teams also brought their very own cheer team.  As the teams competed schoolmates, friends, and family could be heard cheering from the stands. To conclude the event, teams gathered to receive event t-shirts as well as have photo ops with their teammates, coaches, and supporters. We would like to thank all who participated and our host Fern Creek High School for persevering through another challenging school year to offer a unified sports experience.

For more information about Special Olympics Kentucky Unified programs or about how your school can become a Unified Champion School, contact Karen Michala-Parsley at 502-326-5002 or [email protected].