The Titan Unified basketball team won their face-off against the Omaha Burke Bulldogs 26-22 on Thursday, Feb. 23. Keityn Slobodny, 12th, led the Titans in scoring with 12 points from six buckets. Slobodny also began the game by leading the Special Olympics Athlete Oath, “Let me win. But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt.”

A large crowd came out to support the Titans, and the crowd was a key part of Coach Jared Hall’s pre-game message to the Titan team.

“After we got done with warmups, I had to tell them (the team) who the starters were, and I just told them: ‘Hey, look around. All these people are here for you. They’re cheering you on. I want you guys to have fun – I want you to win, of course; I want you to be competitive – but I want you to have fun. All of these people are here for you, they’re cheering you on,” Hall said.

The Unified team gave the crowd a lot to cheer about. From Jayden Dees, 10th, getting a steal and taking the ball coast-to-coast for the score to Ja’vion Lovejoy, 10th, blocking a shot and grabbing the rebound in the same drive, there was no shortage of highlights for the Titans. But according to Slobodny, being a good teammate was more important than making big plays.

“The most important part of being on this team is that you’re able to help your teammates out, make friends with that team, including people, getting them involved on the team, getting them shots up, getting them in the game, and most importantly, having fun,” Slobodny said.

Seth Reisdorff, 10th, who scored four points in the game, noted that communication was key to the Titan victory.

“I think we played well. We talked a lot, we got some rebounds, and we were just being active and talking,” Reisdorff said.

Though the Titans won the game, Hall emphasized the Unified Sports message of inclusion after the game.

“You know, you do events like this, and you see their peers cheering for them (the team) as if it was a regular varsity game. Honestly, we probably have more people at Unified events sometimes than we do at varsity events,” Hall said. “It’s empowering to them, and it makes them feel like they’re a regular part of the school. They don’t feel different, they don’t feel left out, they feel included in everything, and of course with Unified sports, that’s what we want. We want people to feel unified with everyone in the school, that’s the whole point.”