WAYNE – For the seventh straight year, NSAA sanctioned Unified Bowling has provided meaningful and real sport experience along with social inclusion for all.
Earlier this week at Wildcat Lanes in Wayne, the Wayne High Unified Bowling program was crowned district champion to advance to the Class B state championships.
The state roster will include Hannah Davis, Brady Colfack, Bo Armstrong, Brooks Kneifl and Gavin Redden.
Kayla Varley serves as Resource and Special Education at Wayne Community Schools and has been the head Wayne Unified Bowling coach for all seven years. Varley said the season has gone by quickly and she has noticed a lot of the surrounding school districts are growing in unified bowling numbers.
“So, we’ve made tie-die shirts together on a different night,” said Varley. “Or we came together and had pizza and did like a dodgeball game so we can still fulfill getting to be with everybody and creating those experiences.”
Joining coach Varley is Austin Fernau and Katie Magiera along with help from Mike Belt and Brady Henderson.
Wayne Unified bowling is made up of 17 which allows the Blue Devils to create four teams.
“A team is composed of one athlete and two partners and then we can have subs,” Varley added. “So, it can up to five people. So, then we’ve been able to go to quite a few competitions with being able to bring anywhere from two to four teams which has been nice.”
An athlete is considered a student with an intellectual disability while the partners are students without the intellectual disability.
According to Unified Sports research findings per the NSAA, 79% of Unified Partners reported talking to a intellectual disabilities during free time at school and 41% reported eating lunch with a student with intellectual disabilities. Studies have shown that Unified Sports improves understanding of those with intellectual disabilities and complements social inclusion within the school community. This also helps reduce bullying while improving health and fitness especially for students with disabilities facing higher risks.
Unified Bowling has increased from the low 30s in one class to most recently growing to around 60 teams creating a Class A and Class B.
Varley mentioned what the whole premise is behind unified sports.
“That when you train together and play together than that then gets you more opportunities and similarities off of your playing field,” Varley mentioned. “Which is what we’ve seen here at school quite a bit.”
The Blue Devils hosted six other teams during the B3 District competition on November 30 at Wildcat Lanes in Wayne. WHS edged Columbus Lakeview, 727-719 to advance to the Class B NSAA Unified Sports, Bowling State Championships.
This is the second straight year in which Wayne Unified bowling will compete at state. Last season, WHS suffered a 3-2 loss to Ogallala in the first round, who ended up also winning Class B with other victories over Northwest (3-0) and York (3-1).
Joining Wayne High in Class B at state as district winners will be North Bend Central (District 1), Malcolm (2), York (4), Lexington (5) and Ogallala (6) as well as wildcards from Hastings (4) and Alliance (6). The highest point total from districts was bowled by York (911) and Ogallala (910).
State competition is scheduled for Monday, December 5 at Sun Valley Lanes and Games in Lincoln. Opening Class A and Class B games will all start at 10 a.m. followed by second round action at 11 a.m. The Class B Unified Bowling finals will be at 1:30 p.m. followed by Class A at 3 p.m. on December 5.
