Keeghan Gittins
The Huskies Unified basketball team played their first game at Newport Jan. 15. They lost to the Newport Cubs 26-20. But that wasn’t the story. The story was the parents in the stands, erupting with emotion. One parent in the crowd said, “You could really feel how much the kids loved it. It felt like my son was finally a part of something.”
Unified basketball is a subsection of Unified Sports, which is a division of the Special Olympics. Its purpose is to bring those with and without intellectual disabilities together and to create a fun and safe environment. Unified basketball pushes the boundaries and breaks barriers to emphasize the importance of unity, removing any social or societal stigmas associated with disabilities.
“Every parent in the stands couldn’t be prouder of their Huskies,” Coach John Best said.
Sweet Home had some push to have a Unified Sports team, but nothing had really materialized until Brian Brands, who was the athletic director at Elmira and had coached its Unified basketball team for a few years, decided to accept the job as the director of Student Services in the Sweet Home School District. With his experience and motivated helpers – namely Basic Life Skills Teacher Robyn Lindsey, Athletic Director Dan Tow, Assistant Principal Luke Augsburger and many more – in just a few short months, Sweet Home started their first Unified Sports team.
The players with and without intellectual disabilities compete and train together as one team. They play four quarters and follow all the same Oregon School Activities Association rules like any other high school team. There are tournaments and different leagues. Sweet Home will participate in one of the bigger ones at Oregon State University where 35 other schools will compete on Feb. 24.
“Unified does offer other sports, but as of right now Sweet Home wants to focus on basketball, but there may be expansion in the future,” Best said.
At the Newport game, sophomore Jordan Schmidt Ensley scored the first ever point in program history (a two-point field goal from just inside the free throw line).
“It was a great all-around performance for the Huskies, every athlete at least scored once,” Best said.
Sweet Home’s next match-up was against the visiting Bulldogs of Sutherlin High School on Jan. 24. The Huskies started off slow, down 14-10 to end the first half. Fueled by the energy provided by the Rowdy 40, the Huskies stormed all the way back, 21-18, to enter the fourth quarter.
The Bulldogs went on a six-point run, putting them up 24-21 with a minute left in the game. Sweet Home looked to their three-point sniper, freshman Micah Matney, but the ball gave no grace, bouncing in and out.
Sutherlin defeated Sweet Home 30-25.
Sophomore Jordan Schmidt Ensley and freshman Micah Matney combined for most of the points for Sweet Home and have earned themselves a new nickname by the Rowdy 40, “Micah Jordan,” a play on the six-time NBA champ considered by some to be the greatest basketball player of all time, Michael Jordan.
A feeling that something special just took place permeated the gym, reaching past the parents and players to the students and faculty.
“I have never been so moved by something so simple as a basketball game. That was incredible,” Darren Schultz, a spectator, said after the Huskies game.
“Just with two games under our belts, I have seen the excitement of our players, parents, teachers and community,” Best said. “Unified Sports helps give an opportunity to kids with disabilities that they may not normally get.”
Unified Sports was established in 1989 in Connecticut. Beau Doherty, the former Connecticut Special Olympics president pitched his idea of “Unified sports” to Mike Savage, then executive director of the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference in 1992. Over the last 30 years, Unified Sports has gone from just a few schools in Connecticut to more than 8,000 schools across the country. The goal is to be more than 10,000 by the end of 2024. That’s just 8 percent of schools, 130,000 of them, in America. The Special Olympics Unified Sports Committee continues to fight to bring its vision of Unified Sports to every Special Education student in America.
“I teach these kids basketball in my modified P.E. class every day,” Best said. “But it is different when you are part of a team, have a jersey, and play other schools. It’s different when you have the entire school cheering for you. I’m so proud of how they played today, I can’t wait for our next game.”