Students thrive in alternative sports program

JR Bents and Gentry Olson took a moment to reminisce during a break in the action at a basketball exhibition between Cloquet's "unified" gym class and their counterparts from a similar team in Bemidji.

Bents, a ninth-grader at Cloquet High School, joined the class last school year.

"I didn't really know anybody, and I met Gentry," he said. "We're really good friends right now."

Olson, a seventh-grader at Cloquet Middle School, leaned back pensively.

"Eh," he joked, fluttering his hand in a "so-so" gesture feigning ambivalence about his teammate. Bents chuckled.

Unified teams and classes like those in Cloquet and Bemidji contain a mix of students in special education and general education who are referred to as "unified athletes" and "unified partners."

Like any physical education class, it's a way for students to dabble in various sports, but, notably, unified sports are a way for students in either cohort to befriend and understand one another when they might not otherwise get the chance. They meet regularly like any other class, and the broader teams that form for extracurricular exhibitions and tournaments can draw students from neighboring high schools, and even colleges. Cloquet's team also incorporates middle school students.

Mike Doyle, an adaptive physical education teacher who teaches the unified class at Cloquet's high school and middle school, extolled the social benefits of unified sports. Special education students learn from their peers - their teammates - rather than from a teacher or other authority figure, and general education students get a chance to help their peers work on, say, basketball or football skills. Students often become fast friends.

"We're being inclusive. That's our big word," Doyle said. "We want to teach acceptance, we want to teach respect, and we're hoping all of those values that the general ed kids also learn, they're spreading to their friends ... throughout the campus, throughout the community."

The unified basketball exhibition took place Jan. 17 in Duluth during the halftimes of the men's and women's basketball games between the University of Minnesota Duluth and Bemidji State University.

In front of a sizable crowd, Bents and Olson helped open the scoring against Bemidji. Bents dribbled the ball past halfcourt then passed it to Gentry, who ping-ponged it back to Bents, who passed it to eighth-grader JJ Anderson, who zipped it to 10th-grader Theresa Loisel, who was waiting, open, near the elbow for an easy bucket. Loisel pumped her arms in celebration as she hustled back to play defense.

Bents and Olson, who scored later in the exhibition, both thought they played well. The class had worked on a 3-2 defense before the game.

"I made that shot, and I think my, our defense was pretty good, and I think our passing was kind of good," Olson said.

No one kept an official score for the unified game and the referees weren't particularly strict with calls like traveling or double-dribbling. Nevertheless, Cloquet led by a hypothetical 6-0 score after a high-energy eight minutes during the men's game. The second half of the unified exhibition, played during halftime of the women's game, was either 4-0 or 5-0 in Bemidji's favor, depending on whether one player's shot counted as a three-pointer or not.

Asher Geller, a senior at Bemidji High School, was not shy in noting the Bemidji team had trounced Cloquet during a real-deal tournament game the day before.

In February, the Cloquet classes will try their hand at swimming while they prepare for a regional swim meet. Olson said he was excited for an upcoming archery tournament as well. Of the sports they've dabbled in via the class, he and Bents agreed that basketball was their favorite.

Olson said he joined Cloquet's unified team because he thought it would be fun. Bents said he joined because he was intrigued by the chance to meet new people whether or not they have disabilities. He also found himself thrust into a leadership role in his Boy Scouts troop, and wanted to hone those skills.

Some of the Bemidji team's members are BSU students who are working toward teaching degrees. One, who was noticeably taller than the other students on the court, casually grabbed rebounds during the exhibition and lobbed the ball to his waiting teammates near the three-point line for another chance.

"It gives everyone an opportunity to be an athlete on the court, on the field, on the ice," said Sherry Holloway, a BSU professor who runs the adapted physical education licensure program at the university.

Research indicates that kids who are involved in unified activities are more inclusive as adults, Holloway said. A study published in March 2023 in the peer-reviewed Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly indicates that school sports programs for students with or without disabilities may nudge students with intellectual disabilities to be more social.

And administrators at the Special Olympics, which organizes exhibitions like the one on Friday, claim that unified sports reduce bullying, and that more participation in them leads to more-inclusive attitudes schoolwide.

Taking part in a unified class, Holloway said, can underscore for future teachers that they'll have students of all ability levels.

"They end up being better teachers for having these experiences," she said. "It's a win, win on both sides."