Avon Middle School Unified Sports Team Off to Great Start

There is a new team at Avon Middle School made up of athletes after something bigger than wins or championships.

The middle school unified basketball team is in its first season and is off to a great start with a number of students involved in the inaugural campaign.

Avon Middle School special education teacher Leanne Fontana had been looking to get the team started for awhile. She is in her third year as a teacher at the school and, as luck would have it, Assistant Principal Katherine Lawson was interested in starting the program as well.

“Katherine Lawson our assistant principal approached me with idea for the team and  I had  wanted to do it anyway,” Fontana said. “I had been trying to pilot it but it was difficult with budget concerns.”

Those concerns were alleviated, at least for this season, with some outside help. A grant helped get the unified team on the court this season and Fontana thinks enough people will help find a way to keep things moving forward.

“We got some grant money  and went from there,” she said. “The CIAC gave grant money to Avon to help get the program going. They really support unified sports, they have a lot to do with it, they run tournaments and are very generous. They  want schools to start programs  like this.”

Unified sports teams compete in sports such as soccer, basketball, volleyball throughout the year. Teams play a sport per season and Fontana hope to grow the program to compete in a sport in the fall, winter and summer. This year the team is focused on basketball.

Avon has already played a scrimmage at Har-Bur Middle School in Burlington and is preparing for an upcoming tournament at Farmington High School.

The goal of unified sports is to pair students with disabilities with peer mentors.  The mentors come from Avon’s Peer Support Group and the turnout has been overwhelming, in fact Fontana has a waiting list of kids waiting to be involved, which says a lot about the kids at Avon Middle School.

“There are so many great kids here,” Fontana said. “The peer support group had a waiting list and I had to decide who I thought were the most outstanding mentors.”

This year’s team is made up of the following students: Anthony Beaulieu, Colleen Callahan, Ethan Case, Libby Costello, David Delahanty, Johnny Dilozir, Gabe Folkwein, Kirsten Longbottom, Steven Malley, Erin McGuire, Ryan Nolan, Jonathan Nori, William Paradise and Michael Rostenberg.

Aside from the peer support kids, Fontana gets assistance from Avon Middle School special education teacher Christopher Meehan and John Snyder, a physical education teacher at the middle school.

“It is really a collaborative effort,” Fontana said. “John and Chris are great, and we have great Paraprofessional and parents that are involved too.”

The program is open to any student that has any type of special need and this year the team has consistently had about 15 players come out.

“The turnout has been great and we are really happy with how its going,” Meehan said. “It’s a lot of fun and something I am proud to be a part of.”

Fontana echoed those sentiments.

“The experience has been really amazing,” Fontana said. “It’s really something to see students that you are working with on daily bases feel so good about something they are doing. All the kids are learning so much from each other. And to see the peer mentors feel so good about helping someone else is awesome. Teenagers helping others is a pretty big deal, these are some really good kids who go above and beyond.”