Two Naperville schools offering Special Olympics prep program

This spring, two Naperville elementary schools will become the first in Indian Prairie District 204 to offer a Special Olympics preparatory program for students in kindergarten through age 8.

Coaches at McCarty and Patterson schools are gauging interest in the program, which likely will be implemented at other elementary schools next year, said Joy Pierson Nebergall, District 204 Special Olympics coordinator and adaptive physical education teacher at Neuqua Valley High School. “We’re going to start out small this year to make sure everything goes right,” she said.

Officials anticipate about 30-40 elementary students will participate in the program this year. Coaches will work with kids for about an hour once a week on skills that will help them compete athletically. They will learn fundamental skills kicking and catching a ball and running. “It will be a fun experience,” Pierson Nebergall said. In future years, she envisions the program using fourth-and fifth-grade students with and without disabilities as leaders.

The program serves students up to age 8 because at that point, they are eligible to compete in the Special Olympics. There are no plans for elementary school teams, but kids can compete through park district programs.

District 204 was one of the first Illinois schools to sponsor a Special Olympics team with students from Waubonsie Valley competing in aquatics in 1987. Today, all of the district’s high schools and middle schools have teams that compete. All of the schools compete in track, while Still Middle School and the high schools also offer bowling. The high schools add aquatics, basketball, bowling and soccer. District alumni have a team as well that includes all of those sports and bocce.

Jordan Schubert, a senior at Waubonsie Valley said his experience playing basketball and softball has helped him to do well in life. He’s looking forward to attending college in the fall. “Special Olympics has helped change my life,” he said.

Schubert also is a member of Project Unify, a Special Olympics program which pairs students with and without intellectual disabilities to raise awareness about social justice.

Beside creating the new program for elementary students, District 204 was a pilot site for Illinois Special Olympics’ unified soccer. Students with and without disabilities compete together in unified programs as opposed to other programs where students without disabilities may serve as volunteers.

The opportunity for students with disabilities to represent their schools is an invaluable experience, Pierson Nebergall said. “The recognition the kids get in the hallways, the pride, the self-esteem are all invaluable,” she said, adding that those qualities translate into job and social skills. Growing the program by adding elementary students will just add to students’ success. Parents and students themselves are amazed by their accomplishments.

“The look on their faces and the look on their parents’ faces, seeing their kids do things they didn’t think they would get to do ... We’re going to see that sooner, and our expectations will shoot through the roof,” Pierson Nebergall said.