Bemidji State Hosts Unified Special Olympics Basketball Extravaganza

Bemidji State has been a Unified Champion University since 2017, working with Special Olympics to host events for athletes with both cognitive and physical disabilities. Today, BSU hosted a Unified Special Olympics Basketball Extravaganza at the Gillett Wellness Center on campus, led by the students in Professor Sherry Halloway’s developmental adapted P.E. class.

“Sherry just came to me one day and was like, ‘You’re going to do Special Olympics,”‘ said Jana Swanson, lead for this year’s Unified Basketball Extravaganza. “It took about four months to get all the teams and everything done and then the last bit of it was this month. We just had to get Unified partners, ref shirts, and all that.”

It’s a lot of work, but a lot of reward as well, especially for Unified athletes like Nash Tietz.

“It’s amazing to actually get out here and see what’s going on,” Tietz said. “It’s so amazing to see other people like with disabilities or not disabilities that are coming all together and unified and all that stuff.”

Each team has three Unified athletes and two Unified partners on the court at the same time. Each game lasts 20 minutes and they keep score, although no one really pays attention to the tally.

“It’s not really much of a competition,” said Unified athlete Anthoney Smith. “It’s more of making sure that you learn about the disabilities, help with the disabilities, and overall, just have fun with everyone.”

And in addition to fun, it’s an opportunity for athletes to connect with each other and the greater community.

“I love making friends with everyone,” Smith continued, “Nash, Asher, Will. I’ve been their friends ever since I started high school, and ever since then I’ve gotten more and more friends.”

But there is one other thing everyone else got at the extravaganza.

“Whether you’re playing, watching, a fan, whatever it is, everyone’s smiling and it’s so contagious, so that’s awesome,” said Swanson. “This is the reason why I will graduate Bemidji [State] University with Special Ed, because how can you not walk into a gym full of these kids and not smile?”