For many students, competing on sports teams is a core part of their high school experience, but for students with disabilities, getting the opportunity to experience that may be limited.

     Enter the Unified Bocce team.

     The Warriors for All club at Penn-Trafford High School is in the middle of their second season with the Unified Bocce team. The team has a mix of high school students with disabilities and those without. Together the 17 members compete against other high schools’ unified bocce teams including Franklin Regional, Mount Pleasant, Norwin, Belle Vernon and Hempfield.

     Bocce, which is a WPIAL-recognized sport with PIAA state playoffs, allows for students whose opportunities are limited the chance to compete in a varsity sport and to meet other students who they would have not normally interacted with. To Miranda Frye, a special education teacher at P-T and the head coach of the bocce team, having students with disabilities meet other high school students is the most positive part of the team.

     “[Bocce] has caused a big change in the way that kids interact here. I feel like it allows all students to get to know each other,” stated Frye. “[The students] have formed a lot of friendships that they might not have formed before.”

    

Any students interested in supporting the bocce team can catch the last regular season match on Feb. 4 at Belle Vernon High School.

     In addition to the Unified Bocce team, the Warriors for All club takes part in multiple events throughout the school year that help bring students with disabilities and without together to raise awareness of disabled students. One of their upcoming events is the polar plunge on Feb. 22. The club is heading to Acrisure Stadium where they will join other high schools and take part in an all-day event with food and live music; the main event will be high school students jumping into a cold pool. The event is being run by Special Olympics Pennsylvania.

     According to the Special Olympics Pennsylvania website “every dollar raised [during the event] helps support vital programming for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities”. 

     The Acrisure event is just one of the nine polar plunges that Special Olympics Pennsylvania has organized for this winter. On top of the high school polar plunge, Special Olympics Pennsylvania has also put together an adult-focused “happy hour plunge” and a “cool schools plunge” that welcomes kids of all ages. Both of those events are scheduled to occur on Feb. 21 at Acrisure Stadium.

     The P-T Warriors for All club is excited to go to the polar plunge and meet up with students from other schools.

     “The polar plunge helps them meet up with kids from other districts who also have a similar goal of trying to create an including environment in the world so it is nice to be around all of that,” stated Frye.

     Building on the success of the bocce team and the traction of the Warriors for All, Frye has set her sights on even more opportunities for students with disabilities; a spring unified track team.

     Though the team is not set in stone yet, the idea of it is showing even more progress for students with disabilities; giving them the opportunities that every other student gets and the opportunities they deserve.

By Mia Williams, Managing Editor