Last summer, the CSDE collaborated with Special Olympics Texas to evaluate the Unified UIL Track and Field program, an inclusive sports team where players with and without disabilities practice and compete together. From 115 interviews with players, coaches, and school administrators, we learned about what it was like to be a part of a Unified program, and what it meant for the school to have a Unified sports team.  

Coaches overwhelmingly expressed that compared to traditional Special Olympics the Unified sports team felt like a truly competitive track team. One coach reflected, ““I got to be a coach instead of just a mentor.” For many athletes, Unified Track was an opportunity to experience competition. When reflecting on players’ growth over the season, another coach said, “He kind of figured out what it’s like to compete, as well. Instead of, ‘I’m just running to run,’ to, ‘I’m running to beat you,’ and then pretty soon, every day at practice, he was racing somebody.” Furthermore, competition helped students to learn skills needed after high school. “[At higher] intensity, you got to be organized, you got to be structured, you got to have discipline. Well, for [the players] to function in society, they got to be organized, they got to have discipline,” another coach explained. It was clear to coaches that Unified sports provided players with the same competitive experience as non-inclusive sports. By making competitive experiences accessible, more students could gain skills to prepare them for other competitive areas of their life.    

Ultimately, coaches wanted to create a supportive, unified team culture by encouraging partners to develop positive relationships with their peers with disabilities. As one coach said, “We would kind of coach [the partners] on how to talk to the [athletes], on how to say it the correct way to make sure they will understand it. And then after a few weeks…we were able to totally fade out of the conversation and let them just really take those roles of leadership.” These interactions often had a big impact on partners. One coach explained, “Especially [the partners], it was, for them, eye openers because they came in thinking the [athletes] were one way, and then as they got to know them, it was like, ‘Oh, wow, you’re different from me, but not as different from me.’” In forming these relationships, partners deepened their understanding of disability, often through unlearning their previous misconceptions.  

Overall, the positive experiences with Unified sports gave students the normative experience of participating in a competitive sport. It also helped dispel the stigma around disability by bringing students together and showing that all players can meaningfully contribute to competitive sports team. One coach remarked, “[The players] just thought they were going to have fun and get to do a few track meets and have some fun traveling and stuff. And it ended up turning into something so much more and…I think it changed all of us for the better.” 

– By Nathan Barrett, Research Assistant at the Center for Social Development and Education