Metro Games in Queens to Include Unified Basketball All-Star Event
By Randy Robertson, NYC Regional Storyteller
The pressure of coaching a high school varsity boys basketball team in New York City can be intense as parents, students and fans loudly pack the gyms. Long-time Queens High School of Teaching Coach Michael Shelton has navigated those pressures and delivered an undefeated season and a championship in recent years.
As thrilling as those victories were for Coach Shelton, he happily finds himself back in the gym all spring, well after the final horn blows and the varsity season is in the books. Shelton discovered that coaching the Special Olympics Unified Basketball team at P811Q brings another kind of satisfaction.
“This is a different type of joy,” Shelton said on a recent spring afternoon in Bellerose. “The parents are so happy their kids are doing something. It’s really a joy for the kids too. I’m so happy for them, it means the world to these kids to have this opportunity.”
On May 30, the annual Special Olympics Metro Games will be contested at Queens High School of Teaching, Liberal Arts and Sciences in Bellerose with opening ceremonies beginning at 9:30 am. It will be a busy day with 18 track events (5 walks, 9 runs, 2 relays and 2 wheelchair races) and 14 field events (6 shot put, 2 long jumps, 1 high jump, 3 javelin and 2 ball throws).
And this year, for the first time, there will be a Unified all-star basketball event in the gym. Patrick Kehoe of P811Q said the host school is excited for this post-season addition. At least 12 teams are expected to send athletes and partners to the competition. In addition to head-to-head team games, there will be a 3-point shooting contest to create additional excitement.
Kehoe, a physical education teacher and the Special Olympics Coordinator at P811Q, noted one key modification for the all-star event: whereas regular season Unified basketball games are 5-on-5 and must include 3 athletes and 2 partners, the all-star event will be contested as a 3-on-3 competition and must include 2 athletes and 1 partner on the court.
“We know the athletes and partners are used to playing with each other,” Kehoe said. “Mixing a lot of athletes and partners from various schools would be difficult, so we decided to keep the schools together and play each other in a 3-on-3 format.”
Varsity girls basketball coach Jamie Selip started helping with the Unified team this spring and immediately was impressed.
“I love basketball and I love that there are so many lessons beyond the game,” Selip said. “When I was asked to help out, I was so happy. The all-star event will be so much fun for the kids, there will be a lot of nice moments.”
As Selip and Shelton spoke, nearly two dozen teenage players passed basketballs, shot free throws and ran sprints from baseline to baseline. As they practiced, it was not easy to differentiate between the athletes and the student partners. Not only were they all practicing at full speed, there was also a noticeable camaraderie among the athletes from District 75 P811Q and their teammates from the adjacent Queens High School for Teaching. Normally separated from each other at different schools, the after-school Unified basketball program gave them a chance to play together and learn from each other. All were joyfully playing a game they seemed to love.
“It makes you proud to be involved,” Shelton added. “These kids all really do become friends.”
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