Expanding arena of high school sports

New athletics programs to team able-bodied students and those with disabilities

Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010

St. Mary's public high schools will offer three new sports beginning this year — cycling, bowling and boccia — that will be open to all students, including those with disabilities.

"This is an exciting program we are offering the county," said Rocco Aiello, a coordinator of special education, of the new corollary sports program.

Cycling will kick off the new corollary sports programs in October. It was chosen in part because the school system already has a wide variety of bikes, including some tandem bikes, which allow a blind or visually-impaired person to ride on the back with someone else, he said.

Bowling will be offered as a winter sport at Esperanza Lanes in Lexington Park.

"We've seen bowling have a resurgence in high schools throughout the country," Aiello said.

Aiello, who was named the 2008 National Adapted Physical Education Teacher of the Year by the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, piloted a bowling program at Chopticon High School last spring sports season. "We had about 15 participants and it went over extremely well, very well received," he said.

Boccia is similar to the game bocce but is adapted so people in wheelchairs or who have other disabilities can more easily play. That season will start sometime in the spring, Aiello said.

All three sports can be lifetime pursuits and are offered competitively in the Special Olympics and U.S. Paralympics.

The high school program will team able-bodied students with disabled students, similar to the Best Buddies program located at some schools in the county, said Andrew Roper, supervisor of physical education, health and athletics.

This year the teams won't compete against one another. "It's more important that we get them up and running and work out the logistics," Aiello said.

However, he is hoping that the three St. Mary's public high schools could play against one another next school year and eventually move to matchups with other public high schools beyond the county lines. For now, "we're all starting this and we have different sports," Roper said of neighboring counties.

Greg Nourse, chief of fiscal services and human resources, said the school system will fund the corollary sports program with $27,220 to be paid out of the special education category this year. Nourse said it will be requested as part of the general fund starting in fiscal year 2012.

The 2008 Fitness and Athletic Equity Act for Students with Disabilities mandated Maryland public school systems put in place a corollary high school sports program for students with disabilities. The directive arose from a lawsuit filed on behalf of a Howard County student with spina bifida who wanted the right to participate in track and field events using a wheelchair and score points for the team.

The state law requires schools to develop and offer alternative sports programs.

St. Mary's schools have named its program Physical Activity and Lifetime Sports, or PALS.

Aiello said the co-ed programs will each last about a month, The aim, he said, is to build self-esteem, improve physical fitness and allow students to demonstrate sportsmanship and teamwork.

There will be team uniforms and equipment that will be modified as needed based on safety and abilities of students. "We never discriminated against anybody. ... We already had students participating" in high school sports teams who were considered as special education students, he said. "This is just an alternative, just another opportunity."

Melissa Charbonnet, executive director of special education and student services, said that other sports that lend themselves to adapted programs for students with either social or physical disabilities include cross country and swimming, since both are essentially based on individual performance but results count as a team.

jyeatman@somdnews.com