Humber Celebrates Social Inclusion Through Unified Basketball
TORONTO -- Basketball courts were buzzing with more than just competition this Sunday as Humber Recreation hosted its second annual Unified Basketball Tournament.
Teams from Western University, George Brown College and two teams from Humber Polytechnic took part in the event thanks to the schools’ connection with various Special Olympics Ontario chapters.
Special Olympics Unified Sports is an initiative that promotes social inclusion. Unified Sports integrates individuals with and without intellectual disabilities on teams for sports training and competition to promote social engagement and development.
Unified sports consist of equal numbers of Special Olympics athletes and partners without an intellectual disability of similar ages and abilities on the playing field. The tournament aims to include all and focuses on developing social engagements between players, coaches and staff.
Rosters were made up of students from each post-secondary institution and athletes belonging to the Special Olympics chapters in Brampton, London and Etobicoke.
“It gets our partnered players engaging, interacting and using their own voice because I think it’s something that they’re not used to, necessarily, so I think it’s a great way to develop leadership skills”, said Melanie Gerin-Lajoie, George Brown’s Coach and Athletics & Recreation Manager.
“It brings a different set of skills for when you aren’t on the court because you aren’t playing basketball all the time and so I think it’s a great opportunity to meet new people and they can learn to engage and communicate in different ways”.
Carter Crawford, a Special Olympics Athlete who has been involved in Humber’s Unified Basketball program for a number of years, shed light on the impact that Unified Sport has played in his life.
“The students for me help to develop my game personally because they will teach me more techniques and positioning on the court. I would recommend any student who wants to join this program if they have a chance to, 100 per cent. I’ve gotten a couple of friends off this program. And I would say we’re really close to this day”, said Crawford.
Humber has been aligned with Special Olympics Brampton for Unified Basketball since the fall of 2017 and has been participating in a number of game and tournament opportunities. This is the second year in a row that Humber has hosted a tournament of their own providing game operations, shirts for every athlete and medals for first and second place. Lunch was provided by Special Olympics Ontario through their ongoing relationship with Sobey’s.
Crawford also talked about how much being a part of unified sports has meant to him.
“I’ve been with this program for 10-plus years now doing basketball and track and field. This is our third or fourth year with Humber and I just love it. Just getting familiar with the staff here and the players, it’s just a really great thing that they’re doing,” said Crawford.
The tournament featured a round-robin and finished off with the final game between Humber and George Brown, where the host team took the win. More tournaments are scheduled for the new year.
Story by A. Corbett