POPLAR GROVE, Ill.—There’s no question about it, North Boone special education teacher Melissa Ford is excited to see the Special Olympics Unified programs that she has helped build up becoming some of the best competitors in the state.
But what Ford might be even more ecstatic about is the positive impact that the teams are having off the playing field.
“It really gives the kids in the general education setting a new perspective on students with special needs,” said Ford, who introduced the program to North Boone during the 2016-17 school year and has been the coordinator since. “(It helps show) that they’re the same and that they can do the same sports. They create friendships inside and outside of the school, some of them on the weekends go and do something together.”
At its core that’s what the Special Olympics Unified program is all about: helping form a bond between teenagers without intellectual disabilities and those with them.
Unified sports is a collaboration between the IHSA and the Special Olympics. The teams follow all of the same rules imposed by the IHSA, but the squads are made up of a mixture of Unified partners and Special Olympics’ athletes.
“The Unified partners are all students that go to (North Boone High School),” Ford said. “They have to go through the Special Olympics background check. And then when they qualify because their background check clears, they come to me and we put them on the different sports that we do. The Special Olympics athletes qualify through an intellectual disability. It can be a student that has autism or down syndrome. There’s different parts of how you qualify to be one.”
Ford said that an exciting aspect to running the program has been seeing the amount of teens reaching out with an interest in becoming a Unified partner.
“I don’t go out and seek people,” she added. “I let them hear about the program and then they come to me. Then I know that they’re very interested in getting to know the kids and being part of the program.”
The Vikings’ currently run three sports through the Unified Special Olympics: basketball, dance and track and field.
North Boone qualified for the state tournament in basketball in this year and in 2020 and 2022. It performed at the Unified dance state exhibition this year and qualified for state in 2022 and 2023 through track and field.
Basketball has three special Olympic athletes on the court and two unified partners. The Vikings won the regional tournament each of those seasons to qualify for state, where eight teams are divided into two divisions.
North Boone placed second in 2022 and fourth this year. The 2020 tournament was canceled due to COVID-19.
The tourney is played in Champaign in conjunction with the IHSA State Championships. Unified plays at the Activities and Recreation Center.
North Boone’s recent run to state also highlighted how supportive the Poplar Grove community is of the program.
“We hosted the regional game here,” Ford said. “The teachers in the lower levels had the students in special education come to watch them. One of our school board members came to watch. We had a lot more people coming to see because usually we have to travel over an hour to play because there’s no schools around here that do this.”
Dance isn’t sanctioned as a state competition yet, but the Vikings were a part of three other teams that performed after the IHSA’s state championship was held. The squad, composed of Unified partners and Special Olympics’ athletes, also performs at halftime of the boys and girls basketball games, which Ford added gets a ton of support from the student section.
North Boone has won the track and field Division 1 championship in both years it has been held. Events run for the program are the shot put, the running long jump, the 100-meter race, 200, 400 and the relay. There is once again an even amount of Unified partners and Special Olympics’ athletes, and results are based on an individual’s time or distance.
And Ford said that most importantly, the Special Olympics’ athletes absolutely love getting to compete in these events that they otherwise often wouldn’t get the opportunity to do.
“Their facial expressions just tell it all,” she continued. “Even if they don’t finish first in a race, just finishing makes them feel so accomplished.”
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