For the past 5-6 years, Best Buddies has hosted unified track and field. This year, they are trying something new with introducing unified flag football.
The SHS club Best Buddies dedicates itself to students with special conditions. Members engage in a one-on-one friendship with those students.
There are four teacher sponsors for Best Buddies, one of them being special education teacher Jennifer Karushis.
According to Karushis, the students with disabilities tend to not socialize outside of school. So by starting unified flag football this year, the students have an opportunity to be more involved at SHS.
“I hope to expand that for them,” Karushis said. “That they get to make a friend, have somebody to send a text to or eat lunch with or go to a ball game with, that they wouldn’t have been able to do on their own.”
Alongside Karushis, job coach Kerry Simpson also coaches the Unified Flag Football team. He came over from Perry Meridian High School, which already had the sport.
“It was a blast,” Simpson said. “It was a great time for the kids.”
The unified flag football team will have practices every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for an hour and a half. They have six games scheduled for the season with their season opener having been on Aug. 31 against Greenwood Community High School.
Flag football is different from normal football. Flag football is typically played with no contact. The point of flag football is having the defense remove the flag from the offense’s ball carrier in order to make a play, and the team consists of around 20 kids.
Sophomore Sonya Rees has known some of the students ever since she was young. She helps the students with flag football and anything else they need help with.
“I think it’s just a great way to get to know more students,” Sonya said. “And find those students who really care about different people.”
