Kids on Special Forces basketball team form unique bond, win big regardless of score

A unique basketball game at Chippewa Intermediate School drew an enthusiastic crowd of supporters.

The fledgling Special Forces team came on strong with a group of 13 of its 15 members from the Norwayne and Chippewa school districts competing against the Chippewa fifth- and sixth-grade boys team.

Special Forces team member Norwayne fifth-grader Luke Taylor, who was born with Downs Syndrome and successfully made it through open heart surgery at 16 months old, was taking advantage of the opportunity on Thursday, Jan. 10, to light up the basketball court.

"He thinks he's a superstar," said his mother, Kristin Mensching.

"He loves sports," said Mensching, who expressed her appreciation for School Resource Officer Nate Samples from the Doylestown Police Department putting together the special team.

Organized in the fall, the team played its third game Jan. 10.

Team participants are students ages 8-21 with developmental disabilities.

Hand-holding partners score big

Among them at the game were Chippewa freshman Hailey Youngblood and sixth-grader Payton Schafrath, who paired with a unique strategy for playing the game.

Youngblood acted as a partner for Schafrath, who has optic nerve hypoplasia and whose vision is restricted primarily to seeing shadows.

They made their way back and forth across the court holding hands.

"I tell her what end of the court to go to," Youngblood said. "I play, too."

At one point in the game, she handed the ball to Schafrath, who made a basket to the accompaniment of raucous cheers from the crowd.

Emotions were high when Payton made a hoop in the last game as well, her mother Paige Schafrath said, noting, "there wasn't a dry eye."

While she has sufficient vision to navigate, Layton was diagnosed with the syndrome at 4 months old.

It is not progressive, her mother said.

Payton explained she uses context clues, such as the graphics on the ball, to help her play. She also holds Hailey's arm, she said.

"Offense is kind of hard," acknowledged Payton, who listed her other hobbies as hanging out with friends, watching YouTube and ''Good Luck, Charlie," and dedicating herself as a "Swiftie" Taylor Swift fan.

Samples 'brings them together as a team'

Paige Schafrath said members of the Special Forces team work with issues ranging from behavioral to cognitive.

Some are diagnosed with autism, said Chippewa paraprofessional Janet Lenox, wearing a Special Forces T-shirt.

A fan of the team, Lenox said, "I support them."

"(Samples) is absolutely incredible with these kids," Paige Schafrath said. "He brings them together as a team."

"There is such a need out there," she said.

Chippewa intervention specialist Brittany Schumaker, whose husband, Chris Shumaker, helps with coaching responsibilities, said she didn't know what she was missing  before she joined Special Forces.

"This is truly life-changing," she said.

Chippewa fifth-grader Ty Frey is an example of how meaningful it is.

More than just a team as peers come together

He talked about the upcoming game all week at school, Brittany Shumaker said, and drew a contingent of teachers who came to cheer him on.

"It's so cool he gets to do this with his peers," she said.

Samples calls one of his players, Jesse Hunt − a 17-year-old Norwayne student taking industrial electronics at the Wayne County Schools Career Center − "Baby Shaq."

When Jesse joined the team, Samples said, he declared, "I want to play center."

Chippewa junior Sam Petit is one of the coaches, having connected with the opportunity because Samples was his football coach.

They also worked together at a Special Olympics camp at Ashland University for students from multiple counties in the area.

More yet to come as other sports added to list

"It's a cool thing to watch," he said of the game, in between offering encouragement to team members.

"This isn't going to be the only sport we do," Samples said.

Ohio Special Olympics "offers so much for school-aged children," he said.

His team's next basketball game is scheduled for Jan. 18, 4:15 p.m., Norwayne High School, competing with a team of Norwayne fifth- and sixth-grade students.

The games, in which all of the athletes look out for one another, make concessions here and there, such as standing aside to let a Special Forces team member make a basket.

"It's more or less two teams coming together to make each other better," Samples said.

"The main thing is my athletes just want to compete -- go out there and have fun," Samples said.

"Win, lose or draw, just by being out there, we win," Samples said.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Special Forces team takes to the court at Chippewa Intermediate