By being present for Unified Track meets and by participating in their fundraiser on April 26, students can help support the Unified team and build a healthy, active environment.
For Unified coach Bryan Fagan, he always wants to see what everyone is capable of, even if they are perceived differently.
“I always tried to do what my parents told me to do, to see what people can do, rather than thinking they can’t do that,” Fagan said.
Unified Sports allows students with special needs to participate in various sports, such as bocce and track, giving these students the opportunity to be a part of Souderton sports.
For athletic director Dennis Stanton, he views Unified as a chance to build team spirit with the athletes and kids who help out.
“It provides a venue and platform for students to get involved in a sport where they might not have gotten involved if it wasn’t around,” Stanton said.
According to Souderton parent Tina Fantozzi, it was the “friendships and social interactions” that made unified special to her son, Gabe, who graduated from Souderton in 2023.
Also benefiting from the Unified Sports program, senior Sean Camacho enjoys track practices and meets with others.
In particular, Camacho likes running on “the race track on Monday and Wednesday,” Camacho said.
There are a variety of ways students can help in Unified Sports.
On April 26, the Unified Track team hosted a school-wide rock paper scissor competition, along with a fundraiser.
According to Fagan, he believes this is something that everyone can be involved with.
“We’re just trying to build school spirit,” Fagan said, “but we want to encourage everybody to buy lanyards and participate in the competition.”
Since the high school’s Unified Sports program offers bocce in the winter and track in the spring, there are numerous opportunities for students to cheer on the athletes.
“The first thing our student body can do is come out and support our bocce teams and our track team when we have home meets,” Fagan said.
Fagan believes that his biggest achievement was the students who “impacted through participation,” and was a huge reason for the success of Unified Sports.
Since Unified Track began in April, Stanton has been encouraging students, faculty and staff to go to the meets and cheer on the athletes.
“Come to the track to cheer your people on,” Stanton said. “That is one way that people can get involved and help the program.”
With many events being hosted by unified this year, Unified members are hoping they can bring out more kids to help with their program for next year’s season and beyond that.