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Reaching Across Barriers, Athlete to Athlete
By Preston Williams
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
As children and young adults with special needs played soccer with Stone Bridge High School students on a recent Sunday afternoon, as part of the Loudoun County school’s Athlete-to-Athlete program, you could gauge just how big a hit this merger was for the visitors by watching their mothers in the stands.
The moms had entered the gym — heavy rain pushed the activity indoors — with a son or daughter whose challenges and frustrations have largely defined their parenthood. And they would leave the same way.
But watching their children, some well past their teens, learn a sport and be showered with encouragement and instruction from the Stone Bridge athletes provided a high that would last far longer than the three-hour series of drills, contests and scrimmages.
These were the moments the participants, and their appreciative parents, live for.
“He’s actually running after the ball,” said Judi Meree, whose son Steven, 7, was tearing up and down the court. “That’s unusual. He wants to do it, and to me, that says that he feels like he belongs. It’s huge to me that he feels like he’s connected with whoever he’s playing with, even though he doesn’t know their names and has never seen them before.”
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Stone Bridge High Helps Kids with Special Needs
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Jamie Spiering and Hanah Gamble work on their game at a recent Athlete-to-Athlete clinic at Stone Bridge High School. The program pairs special needs children and adults with varsity athletes to work on a variety of skills. (Joel Richardson)
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Athlete-to-Athlete clinic leader Cullen Fleming, a sophomore at Stone Bridge High School, talks with Brian Griffin during a break on a recent Sunday. The Athlete-to-Athlete program at Stone Bridge High School brings varsity athletes together with special needs athletes. (Joel Richardson)
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Cullen Fleming makes an announcement during a recent Athlete-to-Athlete clinic held at Stone Bridge High School. Fleming, a sophomore at Stone Bridge, is in charge of the school's clinics. (Joel Richardson)
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Shane McLintock works on a soccer drill during a recent Athlete-to-Athlete clinic at Stone Bridge High School in Ashburn. (Joel Richardson)
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Fifteen-year-old Evan Sisto works on a soccer drill with Stone Bridge varsity athlete Ronnie Shaban, at left. Megan McCade, also a volunteer with the Athlete-to-Athlete program, stands at right. (Joel Richardson)
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Athlete-to-Athlete volunteers help Shane McLintock work on soccer skills at a clinic held earlier this month at Stone Bridge High School in Ashburn. (Joel Richardson)
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Hanah Gamble, 9, and Albert Luu work on soccer drills at an Athlete-to-Athlete clinic, which pairs varsity athletes and special needs children and adults for an afternoon of sports activities. (Joel Richardson)
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Evan Sisto, right, does some opening warm-ups with his volunteer, Megan McCade. McCade is a varsity athlete at Stone Bridge. (Joel Richardson)
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That’s the idea. A Stone Bridge athlete buddies with a special needs athlete, breaks the initial awkwardness with conversation and warmups, and then befriends him or her for the duration of the afternoon clinic. High-fives abound.
“I was a little nervous to see how the kids would respond to playing,” said sophomore Abdul Shaban, a student coach. “Soccer is not the most popular sport, so I didn’t know if they’d want to play or not. But these kids, they’re great people. They look like they want to play soccer, too.”
“Of course they do,” would be the reply from Dominion High School Athletic Director Joe Fleming, who started Athlete-to-Athlete (motto: Making a Difference One Athlete at a Time) about 12 years ago when he was athletic director at Broad Run High School.
“The ultimate goal of this is to have people realize people are people. . . . Special needs athletes are as passionate and as dedicated to their sports as anybody else,” Fleming said. “Tear down these barriers. Get rid of the misconceptions. Have fun.”
Growing up in Upstate New York, Fleming’s family took in foster children, including two with special needs. “My mother made it very clear to me that that child was no different than I was,” Fleming recalled. He has passed that sentiment down to his own children.
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His son, Cullen Fleming, a sophomore, runs the Athlete-to-Athlete program at Stone Bridge, with help from sidekick Franky Irwin, another 10th-grader, and with guidance from club sponsor Greg McCallum, a history teacher. Senior Andrew Livingstone heads the program at Dominion, the only other Loudoun school that offers it.
When Stone Bridge hosted an Athlete-to-Athlete event during basketball season, the affair featured the school’s cheerleaders and mascot, and the guests heard their names announced over the public address system.
Those frills provided thrills and gave the special needs athletes a taste of the high school experience. But the main reason for attending the sessions is simply to have an opportunity to play.
“I love helping other people enjoy what I love to do,” said sophomore student coach Megan McCabe. “When you see them smile and have fun with it, it just makes it more fun.”
During a break, Steven Meree wandered over to his mother and spotted a reporter’s miniature tape recorder. Invited to speak into it, he said, unprompted, “I’m really grateful to be on a team.”
For many who were on hand, playing on a team is not an automatic rite of passage. At recess recently at his school, Steven, who has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and emotional concerns, was told he could pick whomever he wanted to be on his team for whatever that day’s activity was. He found no classmate willing to be his teammate.
“He has a hard time making friends,” Judi Meree said. “A very hard time.”
That was no problem at Stone Bridge.
“Just to see a smile on his face is huge, because it’s a rare occasion,” Meree said. “The daily frustrations at school, and with peers, there’s nothing to compare with seeing the smiles on his face and seeing him athletically challenged.”
Shelley Mills was not sure how her son Nicholas, 4, who has high functioning autism, would respond in his first foray into an organized team sport. She remarked early on that she figured he would last an hour. She was happily wrong. During a group break for fruit, water and granola bars outside the gym, Nicholas declared it was time to get back on the court.
“The Stone Bridge athletes were so responsive to everything that he was showing that they jumped on things,” Mills said. “When he started looking bored with kicking, they said, ‘Let’s throw in.’ I wasn’t sure that it would be a good fit, but they’re making it a good fit, and that’s impressive.”
Mills was so encouraged that she is considering finding a soccer league for Nicholas, who will attend mainstream kindergarten in the fall.
Tricia Sloan took her son, Blake, a 2007 Stone Bridge graduate, and two of his special needs friends to the clinic. She also helped welcome a shy girl who arrived about two hours into the proceedings. Minutes after the girl showed up, she was sporting an Athlete-to-Athlete T-shirt courtesy of Cullen and running hand in hand with Sloan in a kicking game. At courtside, the girl’s family members beamed.
If you’d like information on how to start an Athlete-to-Athlete club, e-mail Cullen Fleming at athlete2athlete@gmail.com.
Varsity Letter is a weekly column about high school sports in the Washington area. E-mail Preston Williams at williamsp@washpost.com.
Copyright 2009 The Washington Post Company
