LIVERPOOL, N.Y. (NCC News) — Sydney Caviness, a senior at Liverpool High School, has grown up playing sports, which led her to the varsity volleyball team in Liverpool. After her fall season came to a close, however, Caviness started to focus on a second team Liverpool has recently began to offer and the relationships made are something she never could have imagined.
It is the unified basketball team, which has been a part of several Central New York high schools since the 2016-2017 academic year. The team combines students with intellectual and developmental disabilities with students without disabilities to play in competitive competition with a winning team, a losing team and even playoff games.
“It’s good to socialize and make things not so separated like it has been in school,” Caviness said. “The one thing I like most about it is getting to know them and getting to be close with them.”
Ari Liberman, the athletic director in the Liverpool Central School District, says the relationships echo that of other Liverpool teams, if not more.
“Our kids come up with special handshakes and other celebratory things after making a good shot,” said Liberman. “I think the best part is to see how the athletes have bonded and formed relationships with those kids in the special education department.”
The team’s coach, John Graham, says the takeaways for all of the athletes involved are immeasurable, but there is a unique impact on the players without disabilities.
“I think the partners on the team end up with a whole new outlook on inclusive behaviors in how they’ve accepted and embraced it,” Graham said.
The outreach of the program goes far beyond the players involved. Both Liberman and Graham said everyone involved benefits from the team. They said the spectators leave with new ideas, the parents leave with a sense of accomplishment and the coaches leave with pure joy day in and day out.
