Nashua North sports Unified athletic teams

Nashua High School North recently founded its first Unified basketball team. The team, part of the New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association’s Special Olympics Sports Project, and open to male and female students, includes athletes with and without intellectual disabilities – “unifying” them as a single team. “The vision of the joint NHIAA/Special Olympics sports project,” according to the NHIAA, “is to allow students with and without intellectual disabilities the opportunity to represent their high school by participating on a Unified Sports team, providing the students with a quality experience of sports training and competition.” The NHIAA offers soccer in the fall, basketball in the winter, and volleyball and track in the spring, even providing the chance to compete for a state championship at the end of each regular season. Last spring, Nashua North hosted the city’s Unified Sports Day, busing in students from all schools in the district. Soccer, volleyball, track and basketball events were offered to anyone interested in competing. “Unified Sports Day seemed to work pretty well,” Nashua School District athletic director Thomas Aria said. “We wanted to use this event to kick off Unified sports within the schools. We are attempting to put it together and are moving in the right direction.” About half of Nashua North’s Unified basketball team is made up of “partners,” students with conventional class schedules and curriculums.