Red, green, yellow and blue balls promote acceptance and inclusion at Deer Lakes High School and others across Western Pennsylvania.
Deer Lakes is one of the latest school districts to implement the Unified Sports Program through Special Olympics Pennsylvania, which pairs students with special needs students to play bocce.
“It definitely builds their spirit quite a bit and they feel really included,” said Sarah Simon, the assistant bocce coach at Deer Lakes.
Today, Deer Lakes’ unified bocce team hosted @Southparkpride in it’s final match of the season. The Eagles took both games but a wonderful time was had by all.#DLProud#inclusionrevolution#ChooseToInclude pic.twitter.com/M9EM1QcE98
— Deer Lakes School District (@deerlakessd) February 26, 2020
The Deer Lakes bocce team is made up of eight students, including four with disabilities and four without disabilities. The students with disabilities are called athletes. The students without disabilities are called partners.
“We have students with autism and intellectual disabilities,” said Autumn Weleski, head bocce coach at Deer Lakes. “Basically the concept is any student with any type of disability can participate.”
Weleski is also the high school’s Life Skills teacher. She found out about the Unified Sports Program from friends she made through “Best Buddies,” an organization that promotes acceptance and inclusion of special needs students.
Weleski started the Deer Lakes chapter of “Best Buddies” several years ago.
“We want to foster an environment that’s inclusive, accepting and respectful to all students,” Weleski said.
The Unified Sports Program gives students with disabilities the chance to play team sports, something they may not have had the opportunity to do before.
Eric Jankoski is the Unified Champion Schools Coordinator for Allegheny County. He said bocce promotes teamwork and socialization and there are ways it can be adapted for people with disabilities.
“We have individuals that have vision impairments and we’re able to use spotters to show them where the ball is or different colored tape on the floor,” Jankoski said. “If we have individuals who are in wheelchairs, we allow the use of ramps.”
Bocce is a ball rolling sport. The goal is to get the larger bocce balls close to a smaller ball called a pallino. Points are accrued by how close a team’s bocce balls get to the pallino. The first team to score 16 points or the team with the most points at the end of 30 minutes wins.
The bocce teams play indoors in school gyms using specialized bocce balls, Jankoski said. Traditional bocce balls are hard and used outdoors on surfaces like sand and grass. The specialized balls can be used on a gym floor.
“The balls are actually pretty cool. They’re kind of squishy,” Jankoski said. “You could drop it right in front of something if you needed to or you could roll it further along.”
The bocce season runs from December to March. Other Allegheny County districts that offer the program include Avonworth, Baldwin, Carlynton, Elizabeth Forward, Fox Chapel, Hampton, Mt. Lebanon, Montour, Moon Area, Shaler Area and South Park.
Franklin Regional and Norwin are also part of the Allegheny County group because they’re the only districts in Westmoreland County that have bocce teams, Jankoski said.
Deer Lakes’ 2019-20 bocce season consisted of four games. Two of those were home games.
Here’s a quick video of today’s Unified Bocce match versus Avonworth. #DLProud#choosetoinclude pic.twitter.com/mAiKtjYC4Q
— Deer Lakes School District (@deerlakessd) February 7, 2020
Junior Hannah Mass, one of the team’s partners, said the team’s first home match against Avonworth was “uplifting.”
“We had a big turnout. Every time someone got the bocce ball close to pallino, everyone stood up and cheered,” she said.
Jankoski said Deer Lakes has really embraced the goal of the program, which Weleski said is a whole school effort.
Students and staffers attended the home games to cheer the team on, including cheerleaders, members of the pep band and concert choir. Students from the digital communication classes made T-shirts. Other students worked the concession stand. District administrators acted as game officials.
“We feel so much support from everyone in Deer Lakes,” Weleski said.
It was a fabulous sight to behold as our 2 #UCSbocce ?? expansion teams from @DLBocce & @Southparkpride closed out our season today. Thanks 2 both schools & their awesome coaches for truly showing what it means to #PlayUnified & help spread the #InclusionRevolution ???? pic.twitter.com/94He0l3Eet
— SOPA-Allegheny (@SOAllegheny) February 27, 2020
The team’s last game was held on Wednesday at home against South Park.
Deer Lakes lost, but the kids had a lot of fun, Weleski said.
“I think that the whole entire season was a success because we have eight students who work so well together and their involvement helped to positively impact our school,” Weleski said. “Winning isn’t everything.”
The team will participate in the county championships next week for the chance to represent the county at the state championships in Hershey in March.
“We are going to give it our all and hope that we are able to have fun and hope that we can beat a couple teams,” Weleski said.
