IHSAA Sanctions Unified Track And Field Event
INDIANAPOLIS – In a historic move, the Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) has further enhanced its ‘Champions Together’ partnership with Special Olympics Indiana (SOIN) in sanctioning a Unified Track and Field event set for 2014.
This most recent collaborative effort allows IHSAA‐member schools to form teams composed equally of students with and without intellectual disabilities to compete for a state championship in Unified Track and Field. The IHSAA Executive Committee officially approved the new tournament during last week’s monthly meeting.
Schools will be able to individually schedule regular season competitions next spring before state tournament competition. Two sectionals meets – one north and one south – will be run on Friday, May 30 and Saturday, May 31 at centrally located host sites with all participants then advancing to the state championship meet on Saturday, June 7, 2014. That event will be held in conjunction with and take place just prior to the start of the IHSAA Boys Track & Field State Finals in Bloomington.
Events included will be the 100 meter Dash, 400 meter Dash, 4×100 meter Relay, Shot Put and Long Jump.
Special Olympics Indiana will be providing technical support to schools participating in Unified Track and Field, as well as financial grants to a number of schools to assist with startup costs.
According to IHSAA Commissioner Bobby Cox, “The approval by the IHSAA Executive Committee for a Unified Track and Field event is a beginning step in the evolving culture of inclusion between the IHSAA and our partners at Special Olympics Indiana. It is a humbling opportunity to collaborate with one of our state’s most important organizations in the creation of an event that will certainly stand as a historic benchmark for both groups. It seems fitting and proper that the first inclusive sport recognized by the IHSAA is track and field—also the first sport recognized by the IHSAA in 1903.”
In 1992 Connecticut became the first state in which an official partnership was formed between Special Olympics and a state high school athletic association. Connecticut has been conducting organized Unified Sports competitions for high school students since that time and now administers competitions in five Unified Sports while more than 60 percent of Connecticut High Schools compete in at least one Unified Sport.
Following the lead of Connecticut, Maryland, Arizona, Rhode Island and New Hampshire have since formed similar programs. Indiana will officially be joining this list as it forms inclusive Unified Sports teams under IHSAA rules and in pursuit of IHSAA awards and recognition.
The “Champions Together” partnership between the Indiana High School Athletic Association and Special Olympics Indiana was launched on December 17, 2012. The partnership evolved from IHSAA Commissioner Bobby Cox charging the IHSAA Student Advisory Committee (SAC) to engage in “servant leadership” and discover ways to give back to their schools and communities.
The IHSAA SAC researched options and unanimously requested that an official partnership be formed with Special Olympics as the most appropriate fit, incorporating education‐based athlete servant leadership. During the first six months of the partnership, the 18 members of the IHSAA SAC and their schools helped develop the goals now adopted by Champions Together.