Growing County Unified Program Celebrates Season at Jamboree

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. – Personal achievement, sportsmanship and gratitude all were on full display in large measures Tuesday as the county’s Unified Basketball season culminated with a jamboree at Mount Greylock.

 

The now six-team league celebrated its latest entrant and recognized its history in the games’ opening ceremonies when Wahconah was recognized as the first program to bring Unified sports to the county, and Tim Harrington of the first-year Hoosac Valley/Drury cooperative program delivered the athletes’ oath.

 

And the closing ceremony saw representatives from the teams take a turn at the microphone to talk about the season and their coaches.

 

“I feel like the season was pretty awesome, with new people joining,” Mount Greylock student-athlete Monte Melkonyan said. “I’ll miss you guys so much. Maybe I’ll stay a bit longer.

 

“Thank you for teaching us, coaches. You guys are really nice.”

 

In between the opening and closing ceremonies, of course, there were games – six of them played out in three different sessions on courts at either end of the Mountie Dome.

 

Athletes and partners who did battle over the course of the six-week regular season tested one another one more time in friendly competitions where players and fans from both sides cheered every basket.

 

Unified Sports, an initiative of Special Olympics, brings together students with and without intellectual disabilities to train and compete on the same team while representing their schools.

 

With the addition of the Hoosac Valley/Drury squad this fall, eight Berkshire County high schools now participate in Unified Sports: Mount Greylock, Drury, Hoosac Valley, Wahconah, Pittsfield, Lenox and Lee and Monument Mountain, who combine for a South County cooperative team.

 

Together, they are part of a movement that unifies the commonwealth.

 

“All across the commonwealth, there are 19 jamborees,” Special Olympics Massachusetts’ Kathy Lutz told the players and fans on Tuesday afternoon. “There have been over 160 schools in Massachusetts doing this work.

 

“I really want to applaud these students here. I’ve got hope for the future. Because this generation far exceeds my generation. I don’t want to speak for you all. I’m a little grayer on top. But this generation here is the ‘Unified generation.’ I have great hope in you. Congratulations on a season well done.”

 

Photos from this event here.