Throughout the fall, many athletes at Newtown High School achieve success on the playing surfaces and display strong sportsmanship along the way, but there is one squad that plays its game in an environment that puts kindness above all else: The Blue Heat Unified Sports soccer team.

Sure, the Blue Heat team members are competitive, but this special needs group of athletes and their partners have learned to help opposing players as much as teammates in mostly-for-fun games and practices.

The Heat comprises both athletes with varying needs and partners, peers at Newtown High - many of whom are varsity or junior varsity athletes, themselves - who assist in passing, communicating, and making their time together as enjoyable as possible. The Heat practices weekly and competes in tournaments along with other Unified Sports squads throughout the fall. In the winter, basketball is offered, and the Blue Blaze Unified team hits the court. In the spring, Newtown High has Unified track and field.

"It's an incredible amount of fun. We have a ton of new kids - the program just continues to grow," said Kathleen Davey, advisor for Newtown High's Unified Sports program, who has roughly three dozen athletes and partners working together this fall.

"It just promotes friendship. They're making lasting friendships," added Ms Davey, who is also a physical education and health teacher at Newtown High School.

Former Unified Sports partners enjoy their experience of teaming up with the athletes so much that some of them return to help out during college breaks.

"That speaks to what they get out of this," Ms Davey said. "We call them our blast from the past."

"I love it - just to see the kids, the smiles on their faces," said Kira Flynn, one of those blasts from the past, who is a freshman at Manhattanville College, and came back to help out at a tourney hosted by Bunnell High in Stratford this season.

NYA Sports & Fitness hosted the Blue Heat, and unified soccer teams from other South-West Conference (SWC) schools Bethel, Brookfield, Stratford, and New Milford on Wednesday, November 2. The teams took turns facing each other on three marked fields.

Working Together

The opening ceremonies for the event included NHS students Tim Rodgers, Andrew Hsieh, and Silas Decker presenting the oath, "Let me win, but if I cannot win let me be brave in the attempt." A group of Reed Intermediate School fifth and sixth grade students in the Avielle Foundation's Spark Afterschool Program at NYA then performed the national anthem with musician Joe Proc.

"Unified Sports is true play at its finest," Ms Davey said after the event. "It's not about the winning and losing. Rather, how can we all work together to be successful and have fun."

Dave Johnson, the SWC's commissioner and former athletic director at Bunnell High, says the tournament Bunnell hosts is his "favorite day of the year."

Mr Johnson points out that Unified Sports encompasses sportsmanship, teamwork, camaraderie, and more.

"All those things come together in Unified Sports," said Mr Johnson, adding that the partners and athletes gain valuable experiences to help them in the years to come. "We want kids to learn all the life skills that are important to help make them successful in life," Mr Johnson said.

Blue Heat athletes and partners are Jessica Andreotta, Alex Chatzikonstantinou, Jordon Cicchesi, Silas Decker, Rebecca DiDomizio, Robert DiSibio, Garrett Fitzpatrick, Logan Flynn, Grace Frost, Catie Gregory, Andrew Hsieh, John Kalamas, Alex Katsuleres, Mia Katsuleres, Tori Keayes, Yani Kousidis, Jackie Magoon, Emma Maki, Izzy Mawdsley, Kaitlyn McNichols, Dani Mola, Johnny Nowacki, Timmy Rogers, Maddie Rose, Nick Rose, Danny Schreiber, Izzy Shaw, Brian Smith, Sophia Spraggins, Samantha Strocchia, Ben Suckow, Casey Sullivan, Caitlyn Thompson, Jesse Viesto, and Matt Vigneau.