Norwich Free Academy Hosts Unified Basketball Tournament

NORWICH, CT - From Norwich Free Academy: Norwich Free Academy will host the ECC Unified Basketball Tournament, 3:00 p.m., Tuesday, March 6 at Alumni Gym. Nearly 250 athletes representing 11 schools will be participating in the tournament.

This is a great opportunity to see the Special Olympics-Unified Sports model in action: bringing people with and without intellectual disabilities together to promote social inclusion through sports and competition.

"We are extremely proud to host the 2017-18 ECC Unified Basketball Tournament,” said Chris Staley, Unified Coach for NFA. “Our team is looking forward an afternoon of great basketball competition, but also a chance to meet and reconnect with players and teams from throughout Eastern Connecticut.”

The schools participating are: NFA, Waterford, Killingly, Griswold, Ledyard, Fitch, Montville, East Lyme, Stonington, Plainfield, and Bacon Academy.

Members of the Special Olympics “Team CT” group that will be competing in the 2018 Special Olympics USA Games this Summer in Seattle, Washington, will be competing at the tournament. Special Olympics CT is sending a group of 40 people (30 Athletes, 10 Coaches/Delegates) to the 2018 Special Olympics USA games to compete in a variety of events: Tennis, Swimming, Bowling, Golf, Athletics (Track), and Unified Basketball.

The Unified Basketball team traveling to Seattle will be made up of ten students from NFA’s Unified Basketball Team: Elijah Lamarre, Mark Bastien, Patrick Jones, James Franck, Dorsen Louis, Jared Small, Daniel Benjamin, Nick Allard, Gio Moran, and Cameron Duda.

Image courtesy of Norwich Free Academy