For the past two years, our Exceptional Education department has partnered with the community to host the Unified Basketball championship game for middle school students.
Organized by the Virginia Special Olympics, a group that provides athletic competition for children with disabilities, the Unified Basketball tournament allows differently abled students from local middle schools to compete with one another as they advance in the tournament’s bracket. This year’s Unified Championship game, which includes both students with and without disabilities, was between Elko Middle School and Brookland Middle School. The students without disabilities participated on the teams as buddies to support and assist their teammates.
The tournament event was coordinated by exceptional education teacher Dalida Ghoussoub, who has been working with students with a range of disabilities at the high school level for 21 years.
According to Ghoussoub, acceptance and inclusion comes from awareness, which is the reason Special Olympic events are important. By collaborating with the faculty, varsity coaches, band, choir, cheerleaders, and step team, Ghoussoub ensured that both faculty and students at our school were engaged and involved with the event.
“It’s a big chart and everybody gets information on what they will be doing and when. It turns out to be a beautiful performance where everybody takes part in it,” Ghoussoub said
Boys Varsity Basketball Coach Douglas Bibby refereed and assisted with the game, along with his players, who monitored the scoreboard and served as announcers. Bibby believes that students with disabilities are not given “a platform to be able to be recognized,” so allowing the students to play the sport that they love in front of a large crowd at the school allows them to experience a “real high school game.”
“When you’re playing in a game with the crowd of people cheering for you, the cheerleaders dancing, the step team performing, you’re going to have those memories for the rest of your life,” Bibby said.
Health and PE teacher Chuck Wade monitored the student section, ensuring his students would support the middle school student-athletes by having an understanding of what it means to accept one another. According to Wade, the positivity and love the middle school student-athletes share is what made him eager to contribute.
“Those kids, no matter what day of the week it is, whether they are having a good day or a bad day, they always have a smile on their face,” Wade said. “Anything that I can help do with that smile and to keep that smile on their face, I will do that every day.”
Brookland Middle School took home the championship, but the crowd still cheered both teams as they played and when they walked off the court.
