Peninsula launches Unified Basketball program to foster inclusive culture

Peninsula High School has launched a new athletic program for its students. And unlike most athletic programs, the wins and losses aren’t the main draw.

Instead, the focus is on being more inclusive.

It’s called “Unified Basketball.” It’s a program that is overseen by the Special Olympics that allows all athletes to participate in sports.

The purpose of having unified basketball at Peninsula is that it will increase an atmosphere of inclusivity and promote friendship and leadership for students of all abilities. Students with special needs or physical disabilities team up with students without disabilities.

“(This program) is for everyone and anyone who has an interest building a community and building friendships,” said Peninsula’s Unified coordinator Joelle Rickard. “We have a wide variety of students on our team. We have kids who in previous years played varsity sports and then we have kids where it’s their first time being on an athletic team.”

Since this program is in its infancy, the Seahawks’ unified squad plays in the player development division, where the roster limit is 15 athletes.

The roster filled up very quickly as the efforts of senior Jonah Derrick not only sparked the development of the program, but it was his advocacy that got people interested as well. Derrick, a special-needs student at Peninsula, talked about his experience at Peninsula with some assistance from his parents.

“It was a big deal for me. I’ve always felt like I had a lot of people support me, including my parents and teachers,” Derrick said. “No matter the challenges, you can always overcome it.”

Originally from Colorado, Derrick already had a good experience with the Unified program with a very positive coach. He developed as a passion for basketball, cheering on his three favorite teams, the Denver Nuggets, Atlanta Hawks and Miami Heat.

He also cites Heat small forward Jimmy Butler as his favorite player.

“He inspired me to choose this path and to put up goals I want to achieve,” Derrick said. “When I think of actually going to a Miami game, I think of how these players would do in a game compared to how I play unified. Because each game has different flow, and I always think of how each team plays and how they work.”

Wanting to continue playing basketball once he moved to Gig Harbor, Derrick and his family reached out to his old role model and was led to getting in contact with the Special Olympics in Washington.

From there, the program took off.

“We felt that (unified basketball) was a great fit for us and another way for to celebrate our inclusivity and being positive,” said Peninsula High School athletic director Ross Filkins. “It’s been very popular and we’re really excited as this gets off the ground.”

Unlike the other athletic programs at Peninsula, these Seahawks will measure their success with the number of participants in the program, as well as how the community comes together. Wins and losses are completely secondary.

However, athletes are still subjected to learning teamwork in a group setting and time-management skills. They work with mentor athletes, again helping bridge new relationships and building mutual respect throughout the whole student body.

“Peninsula is an interesting, inclusive and very cool student body. Kids get along very well with each other,” Filkins said. “It’s a great enhancement of who we are. There’s not a lot of cliques at our school; the kids get together and get along very well.”

This program is also hoping to reach out beyond the walls at Peninsula as well. Even though they may not be the first school to have the program in the South Sound Conference, they are the first school to feature this program in the area.

Being the first school in the area to initiate the program has generated a lot of community support for Peninsula. This program is designed to show that anyone and everyone has capabilities, and the community has thrown their support behind it.

“So far, we have received a really surprising amount of support. We’ve been really blessed to have the community jump in and be really excited about it,” Rickard said. “I think it increases awareness overall… People are excited about it.”

With the success of unified basketball at Peninsula, the school will provide a unified soccer team in the spring and is debating on either offering unified bowling or flag football in the fall.

The success of this program will ideally trickle down to the middle schools and elementary schools in Gig Harbor as well.

As for the student-athlete that helped spearhead bringing unified to Peninsula, Derrick couldn’t be happier with how inclusive the school has become.

“It’s a part of me now, for the rest of my life,” he said. “I feel like school has become more inclusive after these past few weeks. It gives me the idea of how to introduce unified to people and see if they want to join.”

With unified basketball in place at Peninsula, students like Derrick are gaining more confidence as well as parents and teachers.

Derrick feels particularly honored to have started something so powerful for his new school, classmates and friends.

“Basketball is an inspirational game that gets you involved. It gets you new relationships with friends and having a good time laughing,” Derrick said. “That team is like your family. Not your actual family, but family that you work with, enjoy playing with and that you get along with.”

This story was originally published December 25, 2019 at 6:00 AM.