Nicholas Hull

Despite not being able to play in certain games, Liam Jones, freshman, was still involved with the Unified Basketball team by doing things such as helping man the scoreboard. Here, he is being introduced to the crowd before a game.

Unified Sports is defined by the Special Olympics as sports that join people with and without intellectual disabilities on the same team. However, there have been evident limitations to the Unified criteria, due to the Oregon Special Olympics’ guidelines. 

Liam Jones, freshman, is a quadriplegic student who suffers from cerebral palsy, which is, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a group of disorders that affect a person’s ability to move and maintain balance and posture. It’s caused by abnormal brain development or damage to the developing brain that affects a person’s ability to control their muscles.

Due to Jones’ cerebral palsy, he requires a wheelchair to get around. However, Jones is unable to participate in Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA)-held Unified games due to their Oregon Special Olympics guidelines.

Dr. Jennifer Spencer-Iiams, the assistant superintendent of the West Linn-Wilsonville (WLWV) School District, has been a part of Unified Sports since 2010. Spencer-Iiams has been a proponent of Unified Sports, even before she came to the district, and brought Unified Sports to the WLWV school district in her first year working there. 

Spencer-liams, former Director of Student Services, has worked with Jones’ family since they moved into the district, which was during Jones’ elementary school tenure.

Part of Spencer-Iiams’ goal in bringing Unified Sports into the district was not only to show that everyone can be on the court together, but that everyone can be in the classroom together.

“Unified Sports, in the beginning, was kind of a spark to start the movement when we used to have self-contained classrooms, where kids with disabilities were segregated back in the day,” Spencer-Iiams said. “Then when people began to see ‘Oh, we can be on the court together. Why can’t we be in classrooms together?’ Since then, it’s just been a hallmark of who we are as a district.”

Jones also spoke up, using his communication device and visual cues. When asked if being able to play in Unified Sports makes him happy, specifically basketball, Liam responded with a smile and stuck his tongue out, which is his way of saying yes. 

Additionally, when asked about how he feels when he’s left out of the games, his communicative device picked up his movements and body language, saying that he responded with the word “jealous.”

“He really wants to be on the team out there,” Spencer-Iiams said. “I think we need to continue to be open and listen to what he wants and how he develops over the years because this year he wanted to play so next year, we want to make sure he has more opportunities to play and whether this solution works out with Special Olympics for all the competitive games or we develop more in house games. Either way, we’re gonna have more games next year, but we’re gonna keep listening to him because it might change. Every high school kid changes sometimes, and they don’t want to necessarily do the same things.”

Throughout middle school, Liam Jones was on the Unified basketball and track teams. These Unified teams invited anyone to play because they didn’t use specific Oregon Special Olympic guidelines.

Because he doesn’t have the opportunity to try out for typical high school sports, Jones hopes to play Unified Sports. Emma Combine is one of Jones’ nurses and is with him throughout the day.

“We got to high school and everyone was talking about Unified and how amazing this team is,” Combine said. “We were really excited to go, and then for soccer, we weren’t able to participate because it was on a soccer field with uneven ground. We understood that so we still went to some of the games and hung out but didn’t get to play. Then when basketball came around, same thing. We got there and they told us that if it’s not within the West Linn-Wilsonville school district, that he cannot be on the court via Special Olympics guidelines.”

Section B of the 2024 Special Olympics Oregon Winter Season Rules and Guidelines says, “it is not permitted to register athletes in wheelchairs in team basketball competition. Athletes in wheelchairs are permitted to register for ISC (Individual Skills Contest).”

These rules apply during OSAA-sponsored Unified events, not games sanctioned in the WLWV School District. So, Jones was able to play games in middle school but when it comes to most high school games, Jones is unable to play.

“Even though the Special Olympics provided some support [for middle school games], they were all within our own district so no competitive rules came up [and] we could organize them however we want,” Spencer-liams said. “What took everyone by surprise this high school level OSAA-sponsored Unified, which would add that competitive element to it, which has been this interesting intersection, because we’ve also been an advocate of ‘How do folks with disabilities get access to real competition?’”

The difference between Unified Sports at the middle school level and Unified Sports at the high school level is big, which can be difficult to adapt to or deal with.

“The biggest surprise for Liam’s family and Liam was in middle school, he fully participated, and then this year, I guess none of us expected that he wasn’t going to be able to participate in the competitive components. That was why there was this kind of moment of shock and surprise,” Spencer-Iiams said. “[The athletic director] asked, ‘What’s going on here? Why is this true? How could it be that we can’t participate in this?’ So we reached out right away, and [Liam’s] family was very upset and understandably so. Because I’m on the [Oregon Special Olympics] board, we reached out right away to the CEO, the CFO, and the head people for Oregon Special Olympics and said, ‘What can we do? How can we try to solve this?’” 

Brigham Baker is the athletic director of the school and is also working to improve the Unified Sports program.

“We have a great deal of support in our district, so we are really lucky to have what I think is the top Unified program in the state,” Baker said. “We’re passionate about kids and their experience, and when that experience isn’t at the championship level, wins and losses aside, that championship experience needs to be present. My job is to dig in and find out how we can fix that and make it a championship experience regardless of winning every game or losing every game.”

With Baker’s help, the group has begun discussing a solution to allow Jones to participate in future OSAA-sponsored Unified events. 

“I’m hoping for next season, [the solution] seems very workable to me, but I tend to be very optimistic,” Spencer-Iiams said. “It seems to me like it would be very easy to get done, but I’m hopeful that it could be in place by next season.”

One potential solution is to figure out a way around the rule or have the Special Olympics institute a rule change that could allow Jones to play in all future Unified basketball games. Another solution is that the school puts on more non-OSAA-sponsored games so that Jones is allowed to participate.

Because the Special Olympics’ mission is to include those with intellectual disabilities, those with physical disabilities may be left out, which is not the goal of the school district.

“What I do want people to know is there’s a lot of care and empathy within that organization,” Spencer-Iiams said. “They want to find a solution. When we say inclusion, we mean everyone. The Special Olympics doesn’t have [the same] mission. They are specific, they were formed around people with intellectual disabilities. That’s their mission. Most of the time, the Special Olympics’ and the school district’s missions completely overlap. But in this case, maybe our mission isn’t exactly [the same].”

Like any other high schooler, Jones may want to try something new that isn’t Unified basketball, but for now, people like Baker, Spencer-Iiams, and others involved in Unified will work to make sure he can be involved as much as possible.

“Find what success looks like for that individual student,” Baker said. “We’re gonna find out the best way we can make people successful. That’s our job. That’s our goal. That’s what we enjoy, which makes us feel like we had a good day at work.”