Broken Bow athletics has a new sports team under its umbrella this year, the Broken Bow Unified Bowling team. Unified bowling is part of the Special Olympics unified sports program which is an inclusive activities program that combines an approximately equal number of special Olympics individuals with intellectual disabilities and individuals without intellectual disabilities on teams for competition and inclusive activities fostering an environment of social inclusion.
Haley Savala serves as coach of the Broken Bow Unified Bowling Team. Savala visited with KCNI/KBBN Sports and shared the benefit of unified sports and the social interaction that takes place as a result.
“Our kiddos with intellectual disabilities, they’re not in the regular educational classroom all day long, so they don’t get to connect with a lot of the kids throughout the day. They do have opportunities but not in a social setting so having them be able to play and compete with each other is something pretty special.”
Savala talked about the process of putting together the team.
“We did have a lot more interest than previously anticipated which was wonderful. So what I did was I had all of the potential athletes write an essay. I had them answer like four or five questions. That was just to gauge their character and what their intentions were in joining this team because it’s not just the typical bowling team. We have the unified aspect to that. Once I read through those essays, all of them were great, I had all the kids come up and we had a meeting and I kind of explained to them, ‘hey you know what we actually have too many of you signed up so this is kind of how it’s going to work.’ We’re going to have a bowl off the practice before each meet and those will be the teams that we kind of determine who’s going to bowl. But something cool about that is we can have subs in the bowling meets so the kiddos who may not necessarily get the top score will still be able to sub in and out. So they’ll still get to travel with us and cheer on their teammates in that aspect.”
Tatum Bresly and Devon Baum are both members of the unified bowling team. Bresly shared what drew him to joining the team.
“Just because no other sports really interested me but bowling kind of interests something to be in an activity.”
Baum said that the interaction with teammates on van rides and in practice is one of his favorite aspects of being a member of the team.
“I love it. The van rides, I can already tell those are going to be awesome. Just talking with teammates and just having a good time.”
The Broken Bow Unified Bowling Team had its first competition this past weekend when they competed at McCook. Today the team travels to Holdrege and competes at Grand Island on Thursday. Broken Bow will host its first home meet on November 21st.
Unified bowling is sanctioned by the Nebraska School Activities Association and culminates with the state tournament which is scheduled for December 9th at Sun Valley Lanes and Games in Lincoln. Broken Bow will compete in the B-5 district. The district meet is scheduled for December 3rd in Hastings.
