BSU Hosts 3rd Annual Unified Bocce Invitational

Bemidji State University hosted its third annual Unified Bocce Invitational on Wednesday, where nearly 200 Special Olympics athletes gathered to enjoy the game and to dance and socialize with other students across seven schools.

Bocce ball is just one of many Unified sports hosted at BSU, including basketball, flag football, soccer, and track and field.

“We have people with and without disabilities that are all here to have a good time and have some fun,” explained Unified athlete Anthoney Smith.

“The energy around these events is just infectious, and you can’t help but – you leave and your cheeks hurt from smiling,” said Special Olympics Event Liaison Suzy Poehls. “Your heart grows five sizes here. It’s such a great environment to be in and I love it.”

“It’s hard not to walk in here and not smile. Your cheeks hurt at the end,” agreed BSU Special Olympics Jana Swanson. “It’s just a great experience that the community can come together and be a part of.”

Nearly 200 students representing seven different schools from across northern Minnesota joined the Unified Invitational, playing by Special Olympic rules. And although bocce is technically what brought everybody together here today, it’s far from their favorite aspect of the event.

“Everybody’s coming together and, you know, and being a part of a team,” said Unified athlete Aidan Skala. “And that’s what really matters in Unified.”

“Just seeing everybody’s smiling faces and then them all having fun,” added Smith.

“Meeting new people, like with all sorts of different abilities and it’s awesome,” said Unified athlete Zoë. “There’s so many nice people and everyone’s like, different and we can all just have fun together.”

Along with the fun, dancing, and socializing at the invitational, the athletes also had the chance to participate in a team setting.

“It’s important to be able to get people with different disabilities to be able to play sports because you can’t sometimes have them in other things,” Zoë explained, “and just being able to have them in something like this is really awesome.”

“We’re all different,” said Swanson. “We all have different special capabilities. We all may look the same on the inside, but we’re all different. Just to include everyone and to make sure everyone feels included is what we do here at Special Olympics.”

BSU Professor Sherry Holloway offered, “Because everyone is an individual, everyone needs to have their activity, their friendships, their lifelong skills, they need all those aspects of their life met.”

And although everyone was on a team, there were no winners or losers, as the purpose of the event was to have fun rather than get caught up in competition.