Unified Sports is a great way to bring General Education and Special Education students together as a team to play sports, build a community and have a good time. Unified Sports is a club that makes things like this possible. It is an inclusive program where special education students/athletes can partner up and work together with general educations students so they can play sports. This program has been a part of CIAC for a few schools, but it’s something that is still very new to NHS.  

According to Mr.Thomas Pompei, NHS Athletic Director, Unified Sports is a varsity sport that can last all three seasons and includes sports such as Track, Soccer, Basketball and Volleyball. He said that it was a great thing to have at Naugatuck High School and that is was something that meant a lot to him.

But everything that’s good comes with a cost and that was the biggest issue to get this club to come off the ground. It was getting the money to start things off. Mr.Pompei says that he it was a club that he always wanted to add to our school system but he also knew that he would have to make some sacrifices to the already tight budget.

Mr.Thomas Pompei tried to solve this problem by writing out grants to the CIAC and holding fundraisers for this club. He stated that a lot of it was donated from the schools that had already established sports programs and other clubs within the school. This was just barely enough to get Unified Sports off the ground but Mr. Pompei says that it was worthwhile because the addition of this club has brought nothing but good times together while playing sports and making new friendships.

Unified Sports has also had a big impact on the special education students that are apart of the club. For example one of the partners part of the program Trenton Kyle says that, ‘’I kinda like all of it’’. He also stated, ‘’Soccer is my favorite sport because I’m a part of the team and I like running and kicking the ball.” Trenton is also happy and proud of the new friendships he has made as a participant in this program.

Overall, the addition of this new club has had nothing but a positive impact on our school’s entire community. In its short time the program has brought people together and has been a benefit to the partners and their self-confidence.