Pirates United For Special Olympics: PHS Hosts Basketball Tournament To Build Inclusive Environment

Perkins High School senior Kali Ohlemacher started the 2023-2024 school year on a mission – to bring a Unified Sports program to her high school and that PHS would be recognized as a Banner School by the Special Olympics board. 

On Friday, February 2, PHS took a big, wonderful step toward reaching those goals. With the entire PHS student body present, the school hosted a Unified Sports round-robin basketball tournament with Unified teams from Amherst, Lorain, and Sandusky, as well as our own team from Perkins. 

The teams include players and their student partners, and student coaches from each school’s athletic teams. Cheer squads with players and partners lined the baselines and rooted for their teams and fans. 

And, yeah, the Perkins’ gymnasium bleachers were packed with Pirates. For the week ahead of the tournament, PHS hosted a Spirit Week, with days devoted to the Special Olympics, recognition of disabilities, and supporting our Unified basketball team as well as our Pirates United club.

“It’s awesome,” Kali said between games. “We got together to make the world a better place.”

Kali, who transferred to PHS this year, is a Special Olympics U.S. Youth Ambassador who has traveled to Germany, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere to promote the movement.

She is a believer in bringing all kids, regardless of their skills, talents, and abilities, together for sports and classroom and learning experiences. 
 

Lindsay Bookshar, an intervention specialist at PHS, spearheaded the celebration on February 2 as well as the Spirit Week. Like Kali, she is new to PHS this year, and saw the great benefits of not only bringing Unified Sports to PHS, but also starting a united club within the school.

“I’m excited for the kids to experience this,” Ms. Bookshar said of the basketball games and activities. The players, who are students in her class, got to experience what PHS’s varsity athletes experience – a send-off parade through the PHS hallways, running through the spirit banner at the start of the game, the school band playing, the choir singing the National Anthem, and, of course, playing in front of cheering classmates. 

“I want Perkins High to be recognized as this awesome inclusive school, because they fully have been,” Ms. Bookshar said. “It’s been easy for everyone to get on board.”

And, indeed, several athletes joined as partners and coaches. Many other students helped promote and plan, as well as become a part of the school’s Pirates United Club.

“People are in different situations,” said PHS sophomore Autumn Yontz. “And we can brighten anyone’s day with a smile and saying hello.”  

Freshman Rocco Speer agreed: “This brings everyone together. We’ve never had an event like this before. Hopefully, other schools will follow us.”

Beyond hosting events and spirit weeks, to become a banner school for Special Olympics, the programs must be sustainable and continue from year to year. 

“That’s the end goal,” said Leslie Drury, an intervention specialist at Briar Middle School. “We really want to push for everyone to feel like they are part of Perkins and the Pirate Way.”