Holland Christian High School Unified Soccer team wins bronze medal at Special Olympics
HOLLAND — The Unified Soccer team at Holland Christian High School made quite the debut this season.
Competing for the first time this year, the team of general and special education students took home a state championship in October and earned a berth to represent Michigan in the Special Olympic Games in Florida in June.
At the international games in Orlando from June 5-12, the Holland Christian team took on teams from Florida, South Carolina and the Bahamas and came home with a bronze medal. The team played four total games, with two wins, a tie and a loss.
“To represent the state of Michigan down there is a really cool feeling,” VanWieren said. “For us to get started up and then represent Michigan in Orlando was really surreal.
“It was awesome for the kids to be surrounded in that environment by so many awesome people. It’s a good way to celebrate our Unified Sports at Holland Christian and throughout the state. To celebrate Unified and the Special Olympics through sport is a really cool feeling.”
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The educators and coaches at Holland Christian say even more important than the wins and medals the team earns are the bonds forged between the students.
“One of my goals as a special education teacher at Holland Christian is to help move the culture of school to accepting and understanding of what belonging means for different people,” said Ann Pawloski, HCHS teacher and coordinator for Unified Sports. “Unified Sports and Special Olympics has really been a great way for that to happen. I’ve seen students build authentic friendships with each other through being teammates in Unified Sports.
“It’s been very successful. We see that connection made during practices and games, then transition to during the school day and even outside of school.”
“The coolest thing for me is seeing our teams hanging out outside of sports,” Vanwieren said. “It’s at lunch, in class, in the hallways. It brings everybody together.”
Unified Sports teams consist of special education students, referred to as athletes, and general education students, referred to as partners, playing together on the same team. Holland Christian has soccer, basketball and bocce ball teams for different grade groups.
For soccer teams, there are seven athletes and seven partners on a team. Holland Christian High School also has Unified basketball and competitive bocce ball teams.
Pawloski said the support of Special Olympics Michigan has been critical in establishing and growing Holland Christian’s Unified teams. She also, along with staff from Special Olympics Michigan, presents to other schools to help them get programs started.
Pawloski said being a Unified Champion School has helped build connections between schools, including with Zeeland, which helped Holland Christian get their program started.
— Contact reporter Mitchell Boatman at mboatman@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter @SentinelMitch.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Holland Christian Unified Soccer team wins bronze at Special Olympics
