Three years ago, Team Unified was introduced as a program to promote inclusivity at Grant High School. The program has since grown into a community that allows all students to gain access to a competitive athletic team.

Although the program is relatively new to Grant, Unified Sports have been around for over 30 years. Unified Sports began in 1989, founded by longtime Special Olympics president Beau Doherty. According to the Special Olympics website, “Unified Sports joins people with and without intellectual disabilities on the same team. It was inspired by a simple principle: training together and playing together is a quick path to friendship and understanding.”

Unified Sports functions similarly to the Special Olympics, where athletes with intellectual disabilities have an opportunity to compete in competitive games. However, while the Special Olympics is designed exclusively for disabled people, Unified Sports brings together students with and without physical and intellectual disabilities to compete in a relaxed, accessible and non-over stimulating high school sports league.

During the soccer season, the Special Olympics offers opportunities exclusively for students with disabilities to compete. It isn’t as inclusive as Unified Sports, which is frustrating for students with mobility issues. However, due to limited resources and options, Grant must rely on the Special Olympics program for some soccer tournaments.

“We do just Special Olympics events for soccer, which is frustrating because we have to get creative about our mobility assistance players. Like we had them being like ball girls on the sidelines at the tournament which didn’t feel good, right?” says former Grant paraeducator and Team Unified coach, Daniel Waters.

The Unified Sports program includes two roles: the players and the partners, both of whom are students at Grant. Many Team Unified partners are part of the peer mentoring elective, allowing them to establish preexisting relationships with Special Education students.

“For basketball, we need to have at least three players on the court at all times, then the partners are there to support our players. And we have some players that need mobility assistance or construction throughout the game, so our partners provide that for our players,” says Waters.

Currently, the only four Unified Sports teams in Portland are at Grant, Ida. B Wells, Cleveland and Roosevelt High School. Grant’s program is by far the largest; their basketball program is the most popular, with soccer as a close second. Waters would love to see expansion of the Unified Sports teams, but more support from students and adults in the Grant community is needed to make this possible.

Unlike other coaches at Grant, Waters is not always compensated for his time due to his position as a paraeducator. As a result, Unified Sports has to use flex periods for practices. Flex is a 40-minute study hall that occurs after first period. It happens roughly every other week, so the lack of regular scheduling makes practice challenging.

One of Unified Sports’ largest challenges is discrimination. Not all of it is outright bullying from peers – a major instance of this discrimination is the lack of acknowledgement from the student body.

“We had a game at Ida B. Wells, and they had part of a band there, and they had cheerleaders. Unfortunately, at a lot of our home games we do not receive that much engagement from other parts of the school,” says Madison Johnson, a Grant sophomore and Team Unified co-president.

While there wasn’t a consistent engagement from the student body throughout the school year, the student body did show up for Unified basketball’s final game of the season. Grant cheerleaders were present and there was also a large number of students filling the stands, many of whom had signs cheering on their favorite players.

Team Unified members were excited to see and hear the student body rooting for them. Before the game, Robie Rogers, a Grant junior and Unified basketball player, remembers telling his father, “Dad, look! They’re all cheering for me!”

Because Unified Sports was created to foster a more inclusive and welcoming space for special education students and general education students alike, spectators need to understand that the program won’t look like a typical sports game. While there are referees and the score is kept, the ultimate goal is to create a peaceful and inclusive athletic environment.

“Because of how inclusive we are, we have a huge team throughout all of our cohorts,” says Waters. “It’s such a spirit of sportsmanship where if the player is going to only be able to succeed without much defense, each team will allow that. So we’re really flexible.”

Although Unified Sports has faced challenges, the future is starting to look brighter for players and partners. In past years, the teams have been small— about ten or twenty players— but this year it’s grown to twenty-eight players and partners combined.

Colin Dennis, a senior at Grant and co-president of Team Unified made the decision to join Unified Sports his sophomore year.

“I was scrolling through the forecasting sheet seeing what I can do and I saw being a peer mentor,” says Dennis. “I thought I’d give it a go and it’s been really fun because I get to interact with the students. We get to have lots of laughs (and) I get to support them.”

Johnson similarly expresses her enjoyment working with Team Unified. “I was really excited to be able to work with the ISC (Intensive Skills Center) departments here in the special education classes … It just feels very nice to be able to help where you can and you kind of create this bond with a lot of the students,” she says.

Jeremiah Jones (JJ), a sophomore at Grant and one of the Unified players, shares one of his favorite moments from playing with Team Unified: “It was one of our home games — it was against Roosevelt — and one of our teammates, Robie, made a half shot and everyone really went crazy for that.”

While some of the positive experiences for these students involve hitting big shots in games, other players value having the opportunity to play in a professional venue as a high school student.

Reyna Walker, A Unified soccer player and Grant junior, reflects on this opportunity: “I played Providence Park last year; it was pretty cool.”

The program also gives the students a great opportunity to step out of their comfort zone and make new friends.

“What I really like about it is it’s more of a group thing and everyone gets involved,” says Jones. “No one gets left out — and that’s really important.”