By Stephanie Caron – Staff Reporter

Law’s Unified Sports team is heading into an exciting winter season.

Unified Sports is an afternoon program that allows special education students to work with regular education students in a fun and safe environment.

“Unified Sports pairs students with disabilities and students without disabilities on different teams to compete with other teams,” Unified Sports head coach Mrs. Daniels said. “This program provides the students with the opportunities for social interactions, foster friendships, improve self-esteem and positive changes in attitude, behavior and performance.”

The team just finished their soccer season with a Unified dance, and soon will be doing Wiffle ball, basketball, bowling, volleyball, tennis, and track.

“I started doing Unified Sports because I thought it would be a good way to interact with and help the special education students,” freshman Makenna Sharpe said. “I already knew some people who were participating and you get volunteer hours for doing something so simple and but fun.”

Many of Law’s students volunteer their time on Mondays and Thursdays to help out with Unified Sports.

Not just do the volunteer students have fun, but the special education kids do as well. They have fun spending time with all of the students and coaches.

“I enjoy Unified Sports because I get to learn more about the special education students at Law,” Senior Mary Sullivan said. “Getting to know each of them is great because they all have unique personalities with different talents.”

Some members of the Law community are interested in participating in Unified Sports even if they aren’t volunteers.

“I would like the start tennis in the spring,” Daniels said. “The girls tennis coach (Mr. Kulenych) has reached out to have the team work with the Unified Sports team during a practice.”

“My goal for the kids is to get them to fully participate,” Sharpe said. “I want going to unified sports to be one of the highlights of their day.”

The athletes aren’t just friends with each other on the court, they are friends outside of this program.

“We stay connected with the athletes by having pizza after tournaments,” Sullivan said. “And just by talking to them when we see each other in the halls.”

All of the team members and coaches are hoping for another successful and fun year with all of the kids participating.

“Unified Sports help to foster an inclusive school community where the values of tolerance, patience and sensitivity are evident,” Daniels said.