Whiz Kid: Lara Hawley

There is a place where kids can be kids. They are equal and their abilities and disabilities don’t matter one bit.

It’s called Unified Sports and it is a registered program of the Special Olympics that combines an approximately equal number of athletes, with and without disabilities, on sports teams for training and competition.

Now in its second year at Nonnewaug High School, the Unified Sports program currently has a team of 19 -- seven special athletes and 12 partners -- and the teams compete in basketball in the winter and track and field in the spring.

When Lara Hawley was asked to participate as a partner last year, she didn’t realize the impact it would have on her personally.

“It has had a huge effect on my life,” says Hawley, a junior from Woodbury, who played basketball and does track on the Unified Sports team at NHS. “It has been an amazing opportunity.”

Unified Sports, she explains, is a judgment-free zone where kids can be regular kids and forget about what they are struggling with every day. “I realized that for me, this program symbolized the small points of light in the night sky that helped me see the world more clearly, “ she says.

Hawley will join the many Connecticut students who participate in the state’s Unified Sports programs either as special needs athletes or partners at the Michaels Jewelers/Unified Sports Awards Banquet on May 24 at the Aqua Turf in Southington. Hawley’s essay on her personal experience in the program was awarded first prize in the high school division and she will present it at the banquet.

Hawley’s essay was one of 59 representing 41 high schools. According to Lou Pear, Director of Unified Sports/Connecticut Association of Schools, Hawley’s essay, which was judged by three former principals representing elementary, middle and high schools in Connecticut, was chosen based on “her passion, support for her Unified Sports Team, the life lessons which she has learned and composition.”

When she joined Unified Sports last year, Hawley explains, she realized that although she was supposed to be the role model, it was the special needs athletes themselves who gave her hope.

“Their strength and their acceptance of overwhelming challenges gave me courage and I believe in the end they taught me more than I could ever teach them,” Hawley says.  “When I was asked by Ms. Depolo to join the Unified Basketball team I agreed because I sensed that this would be a very different type of experience. My goal was to try and make a small difference in lives of students who struggled with a disability every day.  It seemed to be a manageable goal, but what I failed to realize was that these students would be the ones to make a difference in my life, and that they would be the ones to help me. “

Special Education teacher Tammy Platt began the program at NHS in 2009 with a grant from the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference/Connecticut Special Olympics Sports Organization. First came the Unified Track team in the spring of 2009 and Platt expanded the program this year by adding the Unified Basketball team. Platt and World Language teacher, Sarah DePolo, run the program and coach the teams.

“The first year we promoted the program by word of mouth in school and had more than enough participants to start the team,” DePolo says. “The students are very supportive of the program and at our first home basketball game this year, we had tremendous fan support.”

DePolo says that the program at NHS has been a very successful endeavor so far as evidenced by the increasing numbers of students who want to participate on the field and on the court as partners. 

“After the first season, the students who participated found it so rewarding and fun that they recommended joining the team to their friends,” DePolo says. “Now, we have more students signing up than ever before.”

According to Platt and DePolo, all of the students join the team as equal members and their similarities, not their differences, are highlighted. The students participate together as one team and all of them support each other despite their ability level.  “As coaches, we never refer to the students as special athletes or partners so that it is truly a unified team,” DePolo says.

Unified Sports was adopted by Special Olympics Inc. in 1989 to expand sports opportunities for athletes who were seeking new challenges while being able to increase their feeling of inclusion in the community. In elementary school, students participate in non-competitive athletic activities designed to develop skills in a variety of sports. At the middle and high school levels, students compete in statewide tournaments in soccer, basketball, track, and volleyball.  It was brought to Connecticut in 1992 through a partnership between the CIAC and the Special Olympics.

There are currently 120 school districts in Connecticut and more than 1,100 special needs athletes and partners participating in the program.

Hawley says that being part of the program has been life-changing for her. “It shows me amazing courage and hope and I am honored to be a part of that.”