Morgan Qualters smiles while throwing a gold mini-javelin at the Unified Track meet held at Hanover Area School District Tuesday. This was the first meet the newly formed district teem participated in, joining several other Luzerne County districts that havejoined the Special Olympics Unified Sports effort in the area. Unified sports is a fully-inclusive co-ed high school program bringing together special needs and regular students to compete as equals.
Mark Guydish | Times Leader
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Joanna Elick tosses a shot put ball during the Unified Track meet held at Hanover Area High School fields Tuesday.
Mark Guydish | Times Leader
Students cross the finish line in the 100 meter dash at the Unified Track meet at Hanover Area Tuesday.
Mark Guydish | Times Leader
HANOVER TWP. — Dan and Emma Mulhern stood on the sidelines behind the fence and watched their granddaughter Morgan Qualters’ face beam through most of her heat in the 100 meter dash. Then they strolled over to a side of the Hanover Area School District athletic fields to see Morgan, still with a wide grin, throw a mini-javelin.
With a complex special needs diagnosis, Morgan has been participating in Wyoming Valley Challenger Baseball for five years, Dan said, but the chance to try her hand at track events never presented itself until Hanover Area School District decided to join the growing list of districts participating in local Special Olympics Unified Sports.
Does she like it?
“She smiles all the time,” Dan said.
The Hanover team, comprised of seven special needs students and seven regular education students, held its first home track meet Tuesday, competing with teams from Wilkes-Barre Area, Wyoming Area and Wyoming Valley West.
Unified Sports is designed to be a fully-inclusive, co-ed program, bringing together students with and without disabilities. To assure competitiveness, students are grouped based on how they previously performed in each event. Tuesday’s meet included 100-, 400- and 800-meter races, a 4-by-400 meter relay, shot put, mini javelin and running long jump.
Morgan’s grandparents said they’ve been happy to encourage her to train when she visits, though “we were not too excited about the javelin,” Emma admitted. Turned out Morgan handled the short, blunt version of the implement just fine, tossing three times in a nice straight line. Maybe it was the practice she got at Dan and Emma’s.
Setting aside some trepidation, they had let her throw the similar-sized extension wand from their home vacuum.
Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish