2013 has brought back many of our athletes and partners from the previous basketball and soccer seasons, but also has welcomed some new faces to the mix. We again have eight teams in action, involving over 100 athletes, partners and volunteer scorekeepers and officials. After having the Skills Assessments and 3-on-3 scrimmages a few weeks back, players were placed on teams with game play beginning Saturday 2/2. Two weeks in, the games have been competitive, the smiles have been plentiful, and Rowan Unified has picked up right where it left off: bringing people together through sports.
There have been a few changes to Unified over the course of the past year. What started as a collaboration between Special Olympics New Jersey and Rowan University has lead to the establishment of Rowan Unified Sports as a sport club within Rowan's Rec Center. Unified joins other clubs such as Rugby, Ice Hockey, and over 30 total clubs in composing Rowan's Sport Club program.
We have aimed to improve communication between everyone involved in Unified. We have created a Rowan Unified Sports website, tried to mainstream our communication through a Rowan Unified email address, and expanded our usage of social media with updates via our Unified facebook page and twitter account. In addition to the things we have done, we are also incredibly thankful for the pictures taken on behalf of our friends at Independence Sports Magazine, and their help in showcasing the smiles of everyone in Unified.
There is also a slightly new look to Rowan Unified. In addition to the traditional Rowan colors, red, gold, blue, black and purple are now being worn on the backs of the athletes and partners on the court. Furthermore, the Unified coaches have stepped up their style, with a few suits, shirts and ties being seen patrolling the sidelines these days. You also may notice grey and gold 'RU Unified' t-shirts and sweatshirts being worn, which are available to purchase for anyone looking for some extra Unified gear to show off to your friends.
Unified is also expanding to other schools besides Rowan. When Unified Sports was brought to Rowan, the staff from Special Olympics New Jersey set the goal of having Rowan being a potential model to be taken to other colleges around the state. We are very happy that TCNJ began a Unified program this fall with soccer, and in the past few weeks, Montclair State, Stockton and Rider have began Unified basketball programs.
We are now through the second of five weeks of our Rowan Unified 'regular season' play, and we will see another change during the sixth week, when the teams are placed into an 8-team bracket for our Rowan Unified Basketball playoffs, set to take place on Saturday, March 9th. The bracket seeds and times will be announced following the Week 5 games on March 2nd.
More important than any of these changes is what has stayed the same: the fact that the relationships between our athletes, partners, families and volunteers are still going strong. With each high five, each hug, each basket made, and each encouragement after a basket missed, the Rowan Unified experience continues to be memorable. The friendships are an awesome thing to witness firsthand, and the basketball level being played seems to also improve from week to week. Some of the teams are 2-0, some are 0-2, but you would be hard-pressed to find someone on the courts or sidelines who is not having an enjoyable experience.
Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this so far. It was exciting to see this get started only one year ago, and has been awesome to see it grow over the course of that year. That wouldn't be possible without every person who has volunteered time to ref or scorekeep, every family member who drives to Rowan and cheers on the players, every Rowan student partner who comes morning or evening, and every athlete who has fun and gives their all on the court. Thank you all for being part of this experience.
We hope that everyone is having just as much fun as we are, and we are excited about what has been going on, and also the great things yet to come!
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We know that Unified can be a great experience for those involved in any way. Last year, we had a few people share their experience here on this blog. If you'd like to write a submission about what this has meant to you, whether you are an athlete, partner, volunteer or family member, we'd love to hear from you and post what you have to say! Please send us an email to RowanUnifiedSports@gmail.com and we'll post your experience on a blog entry here. Thanks!
