By Stephen Smoot
During the past several years, the Potomac Valley Conference has served up some of the best in Class A through Class AAA high school varsity sports teams in the state. From the Wildcats dominating the field in softball last year to Frankfort’s improbable victory in the state football championship this year, some of the state’s best high school athletes compete on these fields, courts, courses, and more.
Through the Potomac Valley Conference, however, has come growing momentum to provide a broader sports opportunity for those who want the enjoyment of sports and the fun and fellowship of joining a team, but prefer an emphasis on fun participation more than victories and titles.
Derek Lambert, Pendleton County Middle/High School principal, approached the Pendleton County Board of Education last week to share that the Potomac Valley Conference “wants to bring back the Unified Sports Program that was around several years ago.”
The concept of the Unified Sports Program originated with the Special Olympics. It creates athletic experiences that, according to the Special Olympics website, “joins people with and without intellectual disabilities on the same team. It was inspired by a simple principle: training together and playing together is a quick path to friendship and understanding.”
It goes on to add that “having sports in common is just one more way that preconceptions and false ideas are swept away.”
Special Olympics of West Virginia offers a wide selection of opportunities, including basketball, bowling, golf, flag football, softball, volleyball, cornhole, and bocce ball.
Keyser High School fields a bocce ball team through the Unified Sports Program. One of the oldest sports in the world, history first sees evidence of it played by ancient Egyptians even before the invention of writing. Italy currently serves as the world’s capital of the sport. Harrison County’s large Italian-American community holds regular bocce ball tournaments in Shinnston.
Centuries ago, England tweaked the game somewhat and gave it the name “bowling.”
Another area school fields a team that evokes the spirit of Unified Sports, but is not yet included in the Special Olympics of West Virginia’s list of offerings. The West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind field one of the best high school squads in the nation at the sport of “goal ball.” This sport takes soccer inside, puts it on a court filled with tactile clues showing location, then puts blinders on the players.
In this fashion, visually impaired players and those with full sight share the same sensual challenges and can play together.
Lambert told the board and superintendent that “we’re not asking for money, but for an opportunity to join the rest of the Potomac Valley Conference counties in offering this opportunity to students who would not otherwise have it.”
The PVC will organize first at the high school level, with plans to expand and include sixth- to eighth-graders, eventually.
Board members passed Lambert’s request unanimously, with J. D. Wilkins, board president, wishing them “good luck.”
