Creating a lasting impression begins with an open mind and a commitment to living our values

By Erin O'Sullivan | December 4, 2013

“It was a twenty-yard, beautiful, over the shoulder pass,” says Ben Strunk, Florida graduate assistant and Tournament Director for Swamp Bowl, NIRSA’s Regional Flag Football tournament hosted by the University of Florida. When asked what moment most stood out to him, it was this throw—right into the arms of a teammate in the end zone during the championship game. It was one of those movie-magic type of plays, and the “joy on [the quarterback’s] face after was just incredible.”

Those of us involved in intramural and club sports understand this moment well; we know athletes, who devote time, energy, and passion to the world that takes place within the sidelines, don’t need varsity membership to continue striving for the highest levels of competition. We also know that winning and losing is just one part of a much bigger picture. We play to win, sure, but, more so, we play for moments that show us just what we’re capable of. And the NIRSA Championship Series hold this value close—as our tagline says, it’s more than just competition.

One of the reasons this play was memorable was the fact that it didn’t stand out—not compared to the various other hard-fought personal victories occurring throughout the games. “It was just great football,” Ben says. The note of surprise in his description has been echoed by many. See, the quarterback who made the pass was part of a new division at this year’s Swamp Bowl—the Special Olympics Unified division.

Carlton Palms Special Olympics Orange Division Champions at the 2013 NIRSA Regional.

The goal of Special Olympics Unified Sports teams is to bring people of all abilities together, and, as Ben’s story shows, NIRSA members are helping them do just that. Unified teams combine players without disabilities with Special Olympics players of similar age and ability. Many colleges with student-led Special Olympics clubs have begun partaking in these sports—and they’re not the only ones. Both ESPN and Walt Disney have partnered with this great initiative to help people use a shared passion and goal to look past perceived differences. In keeping with our Strategic Values, NIRSA began partnering with Special Olympics in 2010.

In 2011, Southern Illinois University offered the first Special Olympics Unified Sports division at a NIRSA Regional Flag Football tournament. With four teams participating, “it started small,” recalls Craig Pippert, Special Olympics Senior Manager of Sports Development, “but we’re trying to spread and continuing to grow.” And, so far, that’s been working. In 2012, Unified divisions could be found at both Southern Illinois and the University of Maryland.

Maryland, who hosted ten Unified Sports teams during its second year of offering this division at its NIRSA Mid-Atlantic Regional Flag Football Classic, helped serve as a model for Florida’s first year of including a Unified division in their Swamp Bowl. “Although Swamp Bowl is in its 26th year, this is our first year as a NIRSA regional,” says Jon Broska, Assistant Director of Competitive Sports at the University of Florida. “NIRSA brought this Special Olympics partnership to our attention. We knew it had gone well in other places, like Maryland, and so we called them up about how they had done it, what kinds of things they had in place. It was a great chance to interact with other people you might not get to see very much.”

One piece of advice that Maryland’s Kurt Klier, Fieldhouse and Armory Manager, and Dave Stewart, Tournament Director and Maryland Student Officials Association (MSOA) President made clear was that even though the Special Olympics fields are a different size than the standard intramural fields, it’s essential that they’re integrated “right next to the collegiate fields and not separated.”

Craig couldn’t agree more. “We want to weave in just like any other collegiate team,” he says. “The goal is that when you’re watching a Unified game you don’t know who the [Special Olympic] athletes are and who the Unified partners are. We’re a part of the tournament community this way. The Unified Sports motto is ‘on the field we’re teammates, off the field we’re friends’, and that’s really been enacted at Florida and Maryland.”

“It’s all about inclusion,” Ben echoes. “You’re inviting them into your tournament, not creating a separate one. We painted the logos and end zones on their fields just like we normally do for the finals, and the participants were just amazed when they came out and saw it. It was a really cool moment.”

The integrated fields at University of Florida's NIRSA Regional.

Jon agrees, saying that the Special Olympic athletes and coaches “were just gushing over the facilities and the opportunity to be treated the same as all the collegiate athletes.”

Another very cool and inclusive moment came during the all-star game, a version of which was played at both Maryland and Florida this year, and saw teams of campus intramural staff members and Special Olympics athletes play each other. Kurt says at Maryland they purposely scheduled it to take place during the thirty minutes of down time at the tournament draw while teams were gathered and waiting for game results. “There was a bigger crowd for this game than for the championship,” he says. “It was just a very positive experience.”

One reason for that is the high skill level the Special Olympic athletes bring to the tournament. “Last year,” Kurt says, “our intramural team got whipped by the Special Olympic athletes. It’s just a label really.” And everyone involved in these tournaments agrees. “I wasn’t sure what to expect [from them],” Ben says, noting that most of the staff at Florida felt similarly. “It gave me a different perspective and definition of what a Special Olympics athlete is. And the collegiate players felt the same—they were amazed at the strength and ability evident in these games.”

Chief among those impressed by these athletes were the officials. “We have 28 officials from other institutions,” Jon says, “and not only were they unanimously impressed with their ability levels, but also their sportsmanship. They felt it was much higher than the average collegiate athletes’.”

Kurt agrees, noting that having these Unified teams in their tournament “helped the student officials see they’re more than just officials. Students forget they have the ability to make an impact. Officials are used to being yelled at or even insulted, and then to have the Special Olympic athletes and their outlook—saying ‘good call’ to the ref, even if it was a call against them—that was meaningful. These athletes measured success in terms of fun, not touchdowns.”

Special Olympics Unified players shake hands with officials before their game at University of Maryland's NIRSA Regional.

So how tough was it to incorporate this new division into the pre-existing, well-established tournaments? Not very, both schools agree. The most common advice offered to those who might be looking to add a Unified division is to get rid of any preconceived notions of what Special Olympics means. “My students [initially] faced this thinking it would be really hard or they’d have to baby the athletes, and that proved just so unnecessary,” says Kurt.

Florida’s experience mirrors that of Maryland’s: “We probably thought it was more challenging than it turned out to be. We were thinking, you know, are these high-risk events? But any preconceived notions were eliminated quickly,” Jon says. Ben agrees, saying, “Our concerns—about what extra or different kinds of things we might need for this group—were really unfounded; we didn’t need anything different. They just wanted to be included like everyone else.”

There were, of course, minor challenges—the logistics of integrating the Special Olympics field layout alongside the collegiate fields had to be considered. There are some rule differences between NIRSA’s Flag Football regulations and the Special Olympic ones, but “both groups were very accommodating. There are really no hurdles or blockades when working with Special Olympics,” Kurt says. Jon also notes that this potential issue was eased by the presence of a Special Olympics representative at officials training and throughout the tournament.

And for the students, like Ben who, as a second-year graduate student, is starting to think about his first professional position, these considerations serve as a “wonderful development experience. Trying to implement a new idea into an established tournament, dealing with logistical challenges, these are experiences that will transfer to anything I do or any program I join [as a professional],” he says.

Unified teams in action at Florida's NIRSA Regional.

“Just go in with an open mind,” Kurt says; “it’s an easy working relationship with high rewards.”

And you don’t need to wait for your own chance to host a NIRSA regional to become involved with Special Olympics on your campus. Just ask George Brown, Executive Director of Recreation at the University of Alabama. This year’s Alabama vs Louisiana State University football game featured the same hyped and much-anticipated rivalry that has excited fans for decades, but, this year, there were two games to cheer for—and both made it to ESPN. While the Crimson Tide battled the Fighting Tigers in Bryant–Denny Stadium in the evening, the Alabama and LSU Unified Flag Football teams duked it out at the Alabama University Recreation Outdoor Fields Complex that morning.

The motivation for hosting a Unified flag football match on this big game weekend started—as many of the great campus ideas do—with a student. Alabama, like many universities, has a Special Olympics College Chapter, which aims to develop student leadership skills while raising awareness for Special Olympics. The student was persistent about making this Unified game a reality, even though, George admits to dismissing it as “pie in the sky” when he first heard about this idea back in August. It seemed hard to believe “that this could take off and go. That game weekend is so big I didn’t think the campus would have the resources to support [an additional game].”

But the idea of “playing side-by-side” kept his interest, and it tied right in with the efforts Alabama’s campus recreation department was making to grow their adaptive rec program. That initiative is about “supporting something very basic—being active and doing it alongside the general student body.” So, even though his initial reaction might have been, “hey, great idea, but let me tell you all the reasons it won’t work,” there also seemed to be compelling reasons to try.

“I really didn’t know if our campus partners would buy in,” George recalls, “but they did. People I thought wouldn’t even come to these meetings—police, parking, Greek council—were showing up. Everyone’s heart and head were in the right place, and we pulled together. Everyone just decided let’s stop finding reasons to say no to this.”

Special Olympics Unified teams from Alabama and LSU made ESPN during this big game weekend.

Haylie Bernacki, Unified Sports School & College Growth Specialist with Special Olympics, unsurprisingly, gives George more credit than he gives himself. “He instantly jumped on board, saying his department would provide all it could. The campus recreation department has been the main pusher behind this,” she says. Which is to say that, this time around, campus recreation not only got its seat at the table—it led the charge.

While holding this game on such a widely-anticipated weekend brings a special set of considerations, it also provides a “just add water approach,” George says. In keeping with the amplitude of the weekend, Alabama pulled out all the stops for their Unified game. Rec Sports held a special breakfast for the athletes, and, besides coverage on ESPN (including making number two on the Monday Lineup), there was fanfare from the Million Dollar Band and University ROTC. Alabama Governor Robert Bentley also attended to conduct the pre-game coin toss.

Even for the Special Olympics crew, an event like this was “totally new to us,” Haylie says. “We’ve done Unified competitions at the intercollegiate level, but nothing this large.” She credits both her organization’s partnership with NIRSA—“it was a big open door for; it gave us legitimacy that we’re not coming in and trying to re-create the wheel”—and Alabama’s rec center and student body. “What makes the difference at the institutional level is when those two groups really understand the value of this” she says.

“This is another portal for campus rec to show what we’re all about,” George says. And, at Alabama, that buy-in brought to life a hugely successful event. “The students and Special Olympics athletes thoroughly enjoyed their game and look forward to renewing their ‘rivalry’ in Baton Rouge next year,” says George.

And that’s not the only way this initiative is inspiring expansion. “On campus we have some very good adaptive sports,” George says, “and we’re hoping this magnitude and exposure [from the Unified game] inspires our campus partners to think beyond just mobility-challenges. From a rec perspective, I’m wondering how do we do this across other platforms—intramurals, club sports, outdoor rec trips. We have to be thoughtful and careful about expansion, but we’ve started a conversation we probably should have already been having.”

There were two football games in Tuscaloosa during this Alabama vs LSU rivalry weekend.

George credits the “phenomena of game day” with helping create “such a marquee event,” but he’s also grateful to have found a platform that “allows [Unified Sports] to have a much more attentive audience. It opens doors; people say, hey I saw that on ESPN, or I was at Swamp Bowl, and I saw these games being played. If nothing else, it gets people to pick up the phone and say ‘how’d you do that? What went on? How did you make allowances for this and that?’”

In addition to expanding across individual institutions, Special Olympics hopes to expand their presence at NIRSA regionals as well. “In the big picture down the road, we’d love the opportunity to run a parallel track with Unified teams that advance from regionals to the NIRSA National Championships in the same way the collegiate teams do. We’d like the opportunity every year to compete for the championship,” says Craig.

It’s a hope that seems increasingly possible. “There’s a renewed focus on developing college level involvement with Special Olympics,” says Brian Quinn, Special Olympics’ Manager for Youth Education & Unified Sports. “In the last two years we’ve gone from seeing very few colleges with Special Olympics Club Chapters to over 70. And our relationship with NIRSA has been really important to that.”

One reason that Haylie says schools shouldn’t hesitate to get involved now and keep this great momentum going is because of the “Dear Colleague Letter,” issued by the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights in January 2013, clarifying that under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 all educational institutions that receive federal financial assistance, including colleges and universities, must provide disabled students equal opportunities to participate in intercollegiate, club, and intramural athletics. Getting involved with Unified Sports is “the perfect opportunity to meet this requirement,” she says.

Unified teams and officials gathered after Maryland's 2013 NIRSA Regional.

The ways for institutions to get involved are as diverse and dynamic as the campuses they’re looking to partner with. Flag Football is one of the many sports available—the University of Maryland also hosts a Special Olympics bocce ball tournament and Central Michigan University just completed its inaugural season of Unified Soccer (check out their video!).

In addition, the resources and assistance the Special Olympics crew offers to interested schools is plentiful. “We don’t want to say it’s easy,” Craig says, “but we try to make it as seamless as possible.” They’ve recently launched their college engagement website and have also made available a collegiate Unified Sports guide, which walks interested schools step-by-step through the process of making this opportunity a reality on their campuses.

Another push for colleges to get involved comes, as we’ve seen, from the students themselves. “We started at the K-12 level with Project Unify,” Haylie says, “and now those students are growing up and going to college and wanting to be involved still.”

Dave, whose insistence and perseverance helped bring the Unify program to Maryland, is a great example of this type of student. “I was always involved in giving back to the community; it’s just how I was raised,” he says. Kurt takes a stronger view, saying Dave was the one who made this the “cornerstone of how we give back. He really felt that this was a unique opportunity. And it’s appealing to our students; it leaves a lasting impression.” And that’s exactly Dave’s hope. “I want this to lead into the future,” he says. “I want it to stay a part of people’s lives.”

Teams shake hands after a close match at Maryland's NIRSA Regional.

Jon echoes this too, citing how he felt having the Unified teams at the regional tournament broke down barriers and “gave people contacts to get involved with Special Olympics locally in their own communities in the future.”

In our work, as NIRSA members, to inspire healthy people and healthy communities through living our values—such as inclusion, service, and sustainability—it’s hard to imagine a better opportunity.