Meet our Mid-Valley: McNary coaches are on a mission to get 'unified'

This is part of a weekly series introducing readers to individuals who are passionate about our Mid-Valley community.

In April, students, staff and faculty filled the McNary High School gymnasium to watch seven teachers get dunked with buckets of water.

It was a moment to celebrate a fundraiser that earned more than $1,000 for a program Salem-Keizer Public Schools has embraced and continues to expand: the Special Olympics Unified Champion School Program.

The program promotes social inclusion and pairs students with special needs with a peer for sports and school activities.

In Salem-Keizer Public Schools, 17% of students are receiving special education services. All the district's high schools have been recognized as unified champion schools by the Special Olympics.

The programs are also in eight of the district’s 11 middle schools. And Auburn Elementary was the first elementary school in the state to earn unified program certification.

Unified is unique at McNary, however, because the program is a dedicated class instead of an after-school extracurricular. This has opened the program to more students — with 75 participating this year.

At the helm of the McNary program are Kyle McGrath, Michael McShane and Matt Murphy.

McGrath and McShane organized the fundraiser to help pay for three school sporting events for the 2023-24 school year and for materials the unified P.E. class at McNary can use as well.

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McGrath, McShane and Murphy are eager to talk about their students and the program. But less so about themselves.

They’re all born and raised in Oregon.

McGrath, a Stayton High School alum and former Regis head coach, was nominated in 2023 for a Crystal Apple Award, recognizing outstanding public and private education teachers.

And Murphy has always been involved in the mental health field. He’s an instructional assistant at McNary and has been at McNary the longest compared to McGrath and McShane. He graduated from Sandy High School and Western Oregon University. He’s also a coach for the school’s basketball team.

He said his years with McNary and the unified program have given him the opportunity to see students overcome “huge boundaries.” He’s excited about seeing the program grow even further.

Murphy said he has hopes for unified theater and music classes.

“I think there’s a lot of cool opportunity with art, music and theater,” he said.

The current program is so popular that students often approach him to try and join the class, he said. They’ve had to start taking applications.

For McShane, the program is personal. His daughter has Down’s syndrome, he explained.

“It was a natural thing” to become involved with the program, McGrath said. It’s why he is passionate about fostering an inclusive culture in the school.

He’s been a camp director and is now also the head coach for McNary’s girl's basketball team. He was a high school basketball player himself, awarded Player of the Year in the Mid-Willamette Region and Valley League in 1996 when he was one of the players to lead the South Salem Saxons to its first-ever boy's state basketball championship.

He also played for the University of Oregon and MSU-Billings. He spent time in China and Australia playing professionally as well.

In 2022, McShane was inducted into South Salem's Hall of Fame.

The three say in addition to more classes, they also hope students can participate in unified tournaments soon. They’d like to host a tournament at McNary.

Back at the assembly, the three join the dance party that’s taken over the gymnasium after a unified kickball game. They said the assembly was a perfect example of their goal for the program: Students cheering on their peers and getting the entire school community involved.

“People think we’re doing this big, great thing but actually it’s about what we’re receiving by getting to know these athletes and the gifts that they have,” McShane said.

If you have an idea for someone we should profile for this series, email Statesman Journal senior news editor Alia Beard Rau at arau@gannett.com

Dianne Lugo covers the Oregon Legislature and equity issues. Reach her at dlugo@statesmanjournal.com or on Twitter @DianneLugo

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: McNary coaches help uplift Special Olympics Unified school program