Butler Unified bocce program opens season in Golden Tornado gym
BUTLER TWP — Competition is one thing. Breaking down barriers is another.
Special Olympics Pa.’s Unified bocce program is providing both, as evidenced by Butler’s season opener Tuesday against Ellwood City in the Golden Tornado gym.
Unified sports are designed to bring high school students with intellectual or physical disabilities together with other classmates through a team concept. Butler, Knoch, Seneca Valley and Moniteau are county high schools with Unified bocce teams. Grove City High School has one as well.
Butler’s bocce program is in its fifth year.
“The program has been a big success here,” said Michelle Yeager, who joins Kaitlyn Reges and Aaron Royhab in comprising Butler’s bocce coaching staff. “Special Olympics Pa. is offering track and field as a Unified sport as well and we’re hoping to get a team started up there in the spring.
“We have a waiting list of kids wanting to join the bocce team now, so we have to select the team. We give upperclassmen priority because this would be their last chance to play.”
Butler’s program consists of 16 players, half of them with intellectual or physical disabilities. They are divided into two eight-person teams. Ellwood City has two teams as well. Both Butler teams played both Ellwood City teams Tuesday in a pair of 30-minute matches.
“The kids really bond,” Yeager said. “They make friends with other students they may have never gotten to know otherwise. Last year, on their own, the kids went out to dinner together at Texas Roadhouse. They wanted to go out to dinner as a team.”
Butler Gold’s team captains Tuesday were Ryan Rumbaugh and Becca Allison. Rounding out that squad were Eli Fennick, Tom Saxman, Abbi Fenwick, Max Gianneski and Mikayla Wolfe.
Butler White’s team captains were Thomasina Cummings and Cameron Hanratty. Rounding out that squad were Aiden Ace, Logan Glodowski, Will Connor, Brady Thomas, Macley Cornetti and Sophia Cornetti.
Allison has been on the team for two years and wrote: “Being on the bocce team has been such a great experience because of all the friendships I made along the way. It has taught me the importance of inclusion and I will take that with me in the future.”
The bocce team practices Tuesdays and Thursdays after school in the high school cafeteria. The regular season runs through February, followed by playoffs. The state championship match is held at The Giant Center in Hershey the same weekend as the PIAA Basketball Championshps there.
“It is a big deal to get there,” Yeager said. “We’ve come within one win of going to the state tournament twice.”
Gianneski, a place-kicker on the football team, wrote that his favorite bocce team memory as “hearing Tom sing his Veggie Tales songs during practice. ”He added that ”being a part of this has brought me closer to people I never thought I would.“
Noah Wolford is a 2022 Butler graduate who played two years on Butler’s bocce team. He was in the stands supporting the Golden Tornado squad on Tuesday,.
“My mom coaches (bocce) at Seneca Valley and suggested I give it a try,” Wolford said. “I did and I loved it. I met and became friends with people I never thought I would have. We’re still friends today.
“This experience changed how I look at sports. I used to think people had to be strong and athletic to do sports. But that’s not always true. Anyone can be part of a team and compete. This is a great sport for someone who wants to be included that way.
“My favorite memory was telling guy jokes to Eli. He loves hearing them. Everyone on the team has so much fun togeter,” he added.
Reges is in her first year as a Butler Unified bocce coach.
“We also work with the Best Buddies Club through Special Olympics and a lot of those Best Buddies join the boce program,” Reges said. “This program is becoming more and more popular. It’s all about getting together with your peers and forming a team, disabilities or otherwise, working and practicing together.
“We’re all on the same level as people.”
Special Olympics Pa. has 91 schools in 12 counties, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia participating in Unified sports.
