‘A dream realized’: How Penns Valley’s new bocce team is promoting inclusion, acceptance
Bocce ball is more than just a game. Many see it as a sport that promotes inclusion and creates opportunities for students with intellectual disabilities to get involved with athletics.
Now, with the latest addition of Penns Valley, all five public Centre County high schools have teams competing through a collaboration between the PIAA and Special Olympics Pennsylvania. The latter organization is involved because bocce pairs athletes with intellectual disabilities with nondisabled students.
“It’s a dream realized,” said Erica Milliron, who was the coach of Centre County’s first bocce team from 2018-2022 at Bald Eagle Area High School.
Unified sports is a growing movement, and Penns Valley became the latest county member to join with the creation of its own team this season.
Participating schools must be Unified Champion Schools affiliated and registered with Special Olympics PA, which simply means the school has formally agreed to combine those with intellectual disabilities with nondisabled students in select sports. The UCS program focuses on giving these students a voice through whole school engagement and awareness efforts. There are 400 unified schools across Pennsylvania, and nearly 300 have bocce teams.
“It takes sport, which is a universal language and incorporates inclusion,” Milliron said. “You take in something that everybody understands with sport and competition and participation, and you’ve taught some additional lessons through that, which is what can happen when everybody gets a chance to play.”
Each team has eight on a roster with at least three athletes and three partners. Penns Valley has only one team — all other schools in Centre County have two — but expects to add a second one as its program continues to grow.
Abby Walters and Ethan Bliss coach the Penns Valley team together and have noticed the change the bocce program has brought to the school community.
“I love seeing them in the hallways now and players walking past each other and they’re like ‘Hey! What’s up?’ and before I don’t think they would have done that,” Walters said.
The bocce team only scratches the surface of other inclusion initiatives that Penns Valley is incorporating.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Bliss implemented adaptive physical education, which provides additional opportunities for students with intellectual disabilities to participate with nondisabled students. Walters is also the advisor of the Helping Hands club, which generates that same inclusion in classroom settings.
“I think it’s really important that everyone comes together and sees that we all have differences but deep down we all have a lot of similarities,” Walters said. “I feel like adopting this program at our school has been really helpful.”
It’s no secret that sports bring communities together, and accepting these unified bocce programs has been no different.
When Milliron was starting Bald Eagle Area’s program, it wasn’t a shock that the community jumped on board. She said, “This school tends to be supportive of its own.”
Centre County bocce teams compete in the Southern Wilds Region. After the regular season, there are playoff matches with the state championship held at the Giant Center in Hershey.
In 2019, during Bald Eagle Area’s first full bocce season, the team won it all, and the fans who traveled joined them on the court in celebration. That only continued when they brought the state championship trophy back to Wingate.
“There were teachers and students that were standing outside cheering for them and chanting their names,” Milliron remembered. “I still get goosebumps about that part because no one could have ever imagined writing that into that student’s story.”
Molly Gilbert and Rhonda Ternent took over the Eagles’ bocce program three years ago and have noticed the true friendships that the sport has fostered.
“To watch the special needs kids interact with the regular-ed kids and watch that sportsmanship and those high-fives, I mean, they can’t wait to see each other,” Ternent said. “To watch that interaction grow and build as the season goes on is what we’re here for.”
Sarah Neumann is the Regional Sports and Unified Champion Schools Director for the Wilds Region. She worked with Penns Valley to kick-start its program and actively provides resources to the rest of the schools in the county.
Neumann has noticed the culture change in these schools because of the acceptance that unified sports received. While she noted Penns Valley has a long way to go, Neumann said it’s on track to reach the same level as BEA.
“It’s not just, ‘Oh they’re in the side gym doing this, that and the other,’” Neumann said. “It’s really having that support in this community, and they’re all there to be enjoying that experience, about watching bocce and being excited about what their team is doing.”
