Unified track celebrated a successful season, placing second at Leagues and fifth at States on May 16 May 24, respectively.

“We haven’t done that well at Leagues in a long time so it was a fantastic accomplishment for everyone,” coach Kevin Hausmann said. “People were exhausted but exuberant [at States]. We were impressed by the quality of the competition because we had never gotten to compete against the South League as we’re part of the Central League.”

At Leagues, the team came behind Nashoba with a 296-193 margin. Dighton-Rehoboth won with 247 points at States whereas Algonquin/Westborough scored 105 points.

“[Leagues] was awesome” captain senior Colleen Kaperzak said. “In the past, our numbers held us back because we had such a large team. But this year they set it up differently so that our individual athletes were able to place higher up. So placing second was amazing… it was a special opportunity for everyone to really win and earn that place.”

“It was awesome seeing how everyone could come together and achieve something so great [at Leagues],” captain junior Shannon Youngberg said. “There were so many teams that were competing and the fact that we were able to get second, I thought was really amazing.”

The team is a co-op of both Algonquin and Westborough High School with a player base of around 90 students with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities. The team was initiated in 2012 by Hausmann and is part of the worldwide organization Project UNIFY.

“Project UNIFY is a very large, international component of Special Olympics,” Hausmann said. “A student or an adult with typical abilities works very closely with their teammates, not as a coaching relationship or a mentoring relationship, but working together. So the ‘unified’ aspect is essentially that Special Olympics isn’t just for athletes with disabilities, other people can get involved who don’t have intellectual disabilities.”

“Your peers of any ability can participate in any sport and they’re just as equal as everyone else, whether they have a disability or not,” Kasperzak said. “What’s great about unified sports is that it is level playing field whether you’ve never done a sport before or if you’ve done it for years. It’s a team for compassion and friendship and learning.”

Many members not only relish in the athletic component of unified track, but also the social setting it offers with people they otherwise would not have met.

“I’ve definitely learned to embrace the differences of everyone and the similarities in us, even if they’re not obvious,” Youngberg said. “I’ve just made so many great friendships throughout this past year, so I’m very happy I joined.”

“It’s awesome, it’s awesome,” captain Clara Anderson said. “ I like meeting new people, I like seeing my friends, getting to know people, it’s really good track team.”

The team, in addition to athletic goals, hopes to cultivate awareness and acceptance of students with intellectual or developmental disabilities within the school community.

“I think the biggest message of our team is that you don’t necessarily have to run the fastest or throw the farthest to really feel like you’re a contributing member,” Youngberg said. “You just have to put in all your effort to make the team effort go the farthest it can go, even if we don’t come in first every time.”

“I think unified track is awesome,” Anderson said. “We support one another, we cheer people on, we connect to Westborough High School. A lot of people have disabilities and we be good about it and be positive so people don’t feel bad about themselves.”

Coaches and members are both brainstorming ideas for bettering the team for next season such as new practice strategies. For now, however, the success of this past season is satiating enough for the team and coaches.

“It was a fantastic season and we’re going to keep that momentum going but enjoy the success for now,” Hausmann said.