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BEAVER, Pa. (AP) — There was a time when the playing field wasn't always even. There was a time when kids with intellectual disabilities were marginalized, forced to sit on the sidelines and watch the action instead of being part of it. But a movement afoot at four Beaver County school districts is changing that by uniting kids with and without special needs on the same teams. The mission is simply stated on T-shirts worn by Central Valley High School's players: "This is how we roll." And who would have thought that bocce -- once considered an "old, Italian guy's" game -- would be the sport bowling over students, coaches and parents? Bocce is among several events sanctioned by Special Olympics Interscholastic Unified Sports, which says the principle for athletic inclusion is simple: "Playing together is a quick path to friendship and understanding." Last year, the Rochester Area and New Brighton Area school districts were the first to form co-ed teams. This year, Big Beaver Falls Area and Central Valley followed. The hope, said Jason DiBenedetto, a special-education teacher and bocce coach at Central Valley, is that more schools will participate. "When people think of bocce, they think of a bunch of little, old Italian guys sitting around smoking cigars," he said. "It's a game that's really a lot of fun. The kids here are really enjoying it, and hopefully it's going to start carrying on to the younger generations." Nineteen players -- eight athletes with learning disabilities and 11 general-education students called partners -- form teams at Central Valley. Unified Sports allows a minimum of six and a maximum of eight players on a roster, but the ratio of players with disabilities and those without must be one to one, said Megan Walsh, also one of Central Valley's special-education teachers and bocce coaches. Twice a week for about an hour after school, Central Valley teams practice on a makeshift indoor court in the cafeteria. Interscholastic meets rotate among the four schools every other Wednesday in their respective gymnasiums. A game Feb. 24 will determine which two local teams advance to the final tournament to be played March 18 before the first girls game of the PIAA basketball championships in Hershey, Pa. Eight teams -- two each from Philadelphia and Beaver, Allegheny and Delaware counties -- will square off in the tournament, said Jennifer Tresp, director of Special Olympics Unified Sports. "I think it's great that we all get to interact together," said Carter Lyons, a junior at Central Valley and a bocce partner. "It's not divided. We help each other play," he said, sharing technique and finesse skills. "I learn not to judge anybody. Everyone's the same. We all play together." Bocce, which is played on a Special Olympics regulation court that's 60 feet long and 12 feet wide, involves a lot of hand-eye skills, DiBenedetto said. "It's real easy to miss and to overthrow or throw too short," he said of the bocce balls -- soft, gel-filled rubber balls about the size of a large grapefruit. Players stand behind a foul line and roll or toss bocce balls toward a smaller target ball -- about the size of a golf ball and called a pallina -- that's been tossed past the mid-court line, but before the foul line on the opposite end of the court. The object of the game is to get one's bocce balls closest to the pallina. "We're just learning a lot of teamwork, a lot of team building," DiBenedetto said. "All of our regular-ed kids are working really well with our kids with disabilities, helping them with strategies and with where they should aim and what they should do." Last week, Central Valley hosted teams from New Brighton, Rochester and Beaver Falls. Three bocce courts were cordoned off on the gymnasium's hardwood. Bleachers were filled with students, parents, faculty and Central Valley's pep band cheering the athletes. Team spirit and camaraderie ruled as teammates and opponents congratulated each other with handshakes, high-fives and back pats when tosses were on the mark. "I've been involved in bocce for two months," said Michael Aikens, a junior and bocce partner at Central Valley. "Some of these kids, this is all they will get to do, so it's nice for them to be doing something like this." It's special, too, that Michael and his twin sister, Madison, can play a sport together, said their father, Rich Aikens. Aikens, who volunteers as a parent coach, said he jumped at the chance when his children joined the team. Michael and Madison were born prematurely at 25 weeks -- Michael weighing 1 pound, 10 ounces and Madison weighing 1 pound, 14 ounces. "The night they were born, they gave them less than a 1 percent chance of survival," Aikens said. "They've come a long way." Both have cerebral palsy, but only Madison must use a wheelchair. Michael and other partners push Madison's wheelchair to the foul line. Because she can't extend her arms low enough to roll bocce balls, her father cut a PVC pipe and built an adaptive ramp. Madison's teammates align her wheelchair to the target, help her place the bocce ball on the ramp and cheer when her shot rolls close to the pallina. Unified Sports, Aikens said, is a good thing that has "brought both my kids into a sport that they can play together, play with other kids in the school. . These kids have never been able to co-mingle so easily with other athletes." Many times, special-needs students "just aren't involved with sports, any type of group activity," Aikens said. "Sometimes kids with special needs get separated from kids in general education, and this is a good program to bring them all together." Walsh said Unified Sports is helping her special-education students build confidence and social skills. "They're making friends that they never would have made before. One of the star football players is on the team, the senior class president, some baseball players, a golf player, people in the band. It's expanding their horizons and making them feel like they're more a part of our school community and expanding their friendship base and getting to know more kids and just feeling better about themselves in general because of that." DiBenedetto and Aikens agree that Unified Sports has raised awareness at Central Valley. "Kids in regular education or general education have become more comfortable with kids with special education," Aikens said. "They know that these kids are just like them. Some of them can't walk, some of them don't have the social outwardness, but down at heart, everybody's the same here. They really, really co-mingle fantastically. "We have children who have autism, cerebral palsy, and these kids in general education just really, really take to them and help them out at every match. At every practice they're there, they're helping, they're cheering them on and making them feel better about themselves." Walsh said the experience gives partners an opportunity to be leaders and role models. "I say that it gives me faith in humanity," she said of the program. "It gives me hope, and it motivates me in my own week just watching how amazing these kids are at the game and how they're interacting with each other and how much they care for each other. "You hear all the time about all these bad things going on in the world, and it's just this really bright, shining star of something great going on in our school." ___ Online: 
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 ___ Information from: Beaver County Times, http://www.timesonline.com/

Beaver County school districts bowled over by bocce league