CENTRAL NEW YORK – If you’ve been overwhelmed with all the bad news in the world and you want to reset your faith in humanity, I suggest you check out one of the Unified basketball games that remain on this spring’s schedule.
For those who don’t know, Unified basketball is an inclusive athletic program in which the teams are made up of a mixture of typical kids and kids with special needs. Boys and girls play on the same teams. Usually, there are three special needs kids and two typical kids on the court at any given time. They act as rebounders and passers, setting up their teammates with special needs for crowd-pleasing buckets.
For the most part, the refs swallow the whistle and let the kids do what they need to do to succeed. Dribbling? That’s optional. Stiff defense? It’s discouraged. Cheering for the home team? Absolutely! But you’ll find yourself cheering for the away team just as hard.
Winning is nice, but giving kids who otherwise wouldn’t have a chance to participate on a team an opportunity to feel that spirit of camaraderie is more important.
You’ve never seen joy like the smile on the face of a person who hears an adoring crowd chanting her name for the first time. If you can watch a young man with Down syndrome howl with happiness after hitting a three-pointer without a little tear welling up in your eyes, you’re a stronger person than I am. Your heart will sing when you see a kid with autism pump his fist and gleefully high-five his teammates after sinking a shot.
Last Thursday afternoon, the Fayetteville-Manlius and Jamesville-DeWitt Unified teams squared off at F-M. The final score indicated that F-M had won, but all the kids on both teams showed themselves to be winners.
As the game wore on, the stands filled up. Full teams of student athletes who had finished their practices piled into the bleachers to root on their classmates. Parents, teachers, siblings, classmates all joined in cheering on kids who in past generations never would have gotten this chance to shine in the spotlight.
As the clock ticked down in the fourth quarter, F-M’s Stella Barlow found herself with the ball underneath the basket. The J-D defenders cleared away to give Stella a clear shot, but try as she might, all her attempts fell short of the rim.
With an assist from the student clock operators, who stopped the clock before the final seconds ticked away, senior Michael OuYang hoisted Stella up toward the rim. With the crowd chanting her name, she made that final shot and the gym erupted with joy.
A few seconds later, the buzzer sounded and the crowd spilled out on the court to congratulate the players from both teams. Everyone in the gym wore a smile.
As I left the high school and walked to my car, I thought about the kids in the stands cheering on their classmates and the kids on the court doing everything they could to ensure their teammates succeeded.
This next generation, I thought, they’re going to be just fine.
Editor’s note: Many Unified teams have wrapped up their seasons, but a few game remain, including: C-NS @ ESM, May 19 at 4 p.m.; Cazenovia @ F-M, May 20 at 4:30 p.m.; Chittenango @ J-D, May 20 at 4:30 p.m.; F-M @ Cortland, May 23 at 4:30 p.m.
