Grand Rapids High School and Cloquet Face Off In Annual Unified Softball Tournament

Grand Rapids High School hosted a Unified basketball tournament back in January, and now that the weather is warmer, they’re taking their talents outside. A Unified softball tournament took place earlier this week with student athletes from Grand Rapids and Cloquet.

“What I like about this Unified physical education is it gives that nice balance,” said Grand Rapids High School DAPE Teacher Mandy Stephens. “It gives that that time for those kids to become more active and learn how to socialize and engage with their peers in a healthy way and also in ways that they might not be able to experience in their other classrooms.”

Getting that balance took some stepping up to the plate—literally.

“We had a lot of fun time, having fun with the team, enjoying the victory that we’ve got,” exclaimed Grand Rapids Unified athlete Zach. “Thunderhawks got first place.”

And at events like these, the non-DAPE students end up having just as great of a time as everyone else.

“I think everyone’s having fun,” said Grand Rapids sophomore William Kenowski, “I know I am out here. Nice weather.”

“I really enjoy because there’s no judgment and we can just like have a good time and like, everybody is like here for the same cause and it’s so fun,” said Grand Rapids junior Kate Williams.

These weren’t your average softball games, either, as Unified sports can teach so many more life lessons than just swinging a bat.

“A lot of smiles, a lot of high fives,” said Stephens. “A lot of friendships are made. Like, there’s a lot of times when class starts and they go right from the beginning, until right to the bell rings and they’re just either socializing, playing. Finding any way to just engage with one another.”

“It’s very fun,” said Unified athlete Ty. “It was the part when we all had to join in and team together. It was all about the teamwork.”

“Everyone’s personality comes out because they got at the end of the year, some of these kids, they were kind of shy,” said Kenowski. “But now you can talk to any one of them and they’ll have a conversation back.”

“It’s very student-led,” says Stephens. “So a lot of them just they’re their natural leaders, their future and it’s really exciting, too, for me and the staff to be able to watch these kids just just do amazing things.”

The two teams consisted of over 30 athletes from each school.