3/12/2024
The WIBCA All-Star Weekend begins with a very special game on Saturday morning at 10am. It is the Unified All-Star Game. Unified Sports is a program that works hand-in-hand with the Special Olympics and is an inclusive sports program that combines as close as possible an equal number of students with and without an intellectual/developmental disability on teams for training and competition.
Nearly 70 Unified teams participated in 4 leagues across Washington State and they play a regular schedule with weekly league play have their own district tournament and a state tournament.
I am now going to take a personal point of privilege and step out of simply being a reporter of facts. As the father of an autistic young lady who is now 29 this Unified program is something many people will never understand how important it is. When my daughter attended Centralia High school she got to participate as a cheer leader. The Unified sports program was not available at that time but Special Olympics was.
She was not interested in participating in Special Olympics, the reason being she said and I quote, “Dad I don’t go to Special Olympics High School, I am a Centralia Tiger and want to be a Tiger”.
As great as the Special Olympics are and they are fabulous they couldn’t provide that experience for her of getting to represent her school which is what she dearly wanted to do. The fact that Special Olympics has come up with the Unified Sports program where kids get to put on their school colors and represent their school and community is simply awesome.
It is also the perfect name as nothing is more unifying than watching athletes of all kinds of abilities do their best to compete and to represent their schools. This is the essence of High School sports, no D1 talk, no transfer outrage, no this is unfair madness, when you watch and support the Unified Sports you see the true meaning of desire, doing your best, over-coming challenges, humbleness and shared victories. It’s the best example of true high school competition and we’re excited to cover this game on Saturday. Our crew will be there with a full play-by-play, we’ll have a follow up story and we hope to get plenty of interviews with as many of these awesome athletes as we possibly can. This is one of their few chances to step into the spotlight and let it shine on them. It’s only fair since their light shines on the rest of us the other 364 days of the year.
To attend the game there is a $10 admission and that gets you in for all 5 games on Saturday or you can watch it on our NFHS stream. This is a subscription stream of $12.99 for 30 days, not a pay-per-view. The game will be saved on-demand as well so you can go back and watch it anytime. You can cancel your subscriptioin at anytime as well, there is no contract just simply a 30-day subscription which is month to month or an annual subscription if you love High School sports for $79.99 a year. ESN will also be streaming the Unified Soccer Championships this Spring during the State Soccer final 4.
The selection of the 2 teams participating on Saturday is explined below and their full rosters and schools they represent. Also, there is a link to Special Olympics Washington if you’d like information on what is available through this great organization or if you want to get involved. A special thanks to Morgan Larche who is the statewide Director of the Unified Schools program.
Unified All- Star Team Selection: During the state qualifying tournament, a selection team was assembled to watch the championship game of each division to select a Unified Pair (student with and without an intellectual/developmental disability). A Unified Pair was selected from each of the 9 teams advancing to the High School State Unified Basketball Championship in Wenatchee, WA to form 2 All Star teams.
Schools Represented: • Battle Ground HS- Battle Ground, WA • Grandview HS- Grandview, WA • Kamiak HS- Mukilteo, WA • Mount Tahoma HS- Tacoma, WA • Puyallup HS- Puyallup, WA • Skyview HS- Vancouver, WA • West Seattle HS- Seattle, WA
How to Get Involved: Special Olympics Washington is always looking to engage more people! If you are interested getting involved with Special Olympics Washington, please visit www.sowa.org.
Unified Rosters
Visiting Team (Navy Blue Shirts)
1 Jonathan Diaz Kamiak HS
2 Ella Kunz Kamiak HS
3 James Jones Mount Tahoma HS
4 Joshua Grubb Mount Tahoma HS
5 Evan Franco Skyview HS
10 Elliott Weinmann West Seattle HS
11 Gibson Aguiular West Seattle HS
12 Julian Gregor Skyview HS
13 Brodie Callanan Puyallup HS
14 Tyra Karanja Puyallup HS
Head Coach Tim Bauer West Seattle HS
Assistant Coach Jessica O’Connor West Seattle HS
Home Team (White Shirts)
1 Heriberto Flores Grandview HS
2 Nathanylle Rodriguez Grandview HS
3 Bryce Littman Puyallup HS
4 Joshua Longnecker Puyallup HS
5 Miles Higgins Kamiak HS
10 Haaland Christiansen Kamiak HS
11 Jacob Champine Battle Ground HS
12 Luke Dahl Battle Ground HS
13 Asher Rosenstock West Seattle HS
Head Coach Joshua Wisnubroto Kamiak HS
Assistant Coach Rheeno Kwak Kamiak HS
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