THE ECHO

By Amelia Humphrey // Reporter

Most students don’t know about the Avon High School sport that is one year in the making.

Unified flag football is a variation of the classic American sport that we all know and love. In this sport, general education students work with special needs students as they learn the rules of the sport, athletic disciplines, and team building. Unified flag, though a brand-new addition to Avon, is an IHSAA-sanctioned sport with inter-school competition and a state tournament. The team is coached by engineering teacher Christopher Hill and assisted by special education professionals.

The team is comprised of athletes, the players with special needs, and partners, who assist the athletes and compete alongside them. In its inaugural season, the team consisted of five athletes and eight partners.

“We’d tell them, ‘This is what play we’re gonna run,’ and we’d help them run the play. We made sure they had most of the attention and made them feel very excited about it,” senior Olivia Drosche said.

Because most of the focus is on the athletes, some rules exist to ensure their increased participation—”even the playing field,” as Coach Hill described it.

“One instance is, on a forward pass, either the person passing it or the person catching it has to be an athlete,” Hill said. “So you can’t have just a few people doing everything.”

Unified flag has some other rules altering the gameplay.

 “You still have to have somebody snap the balls—still a center—but the center can go out for a pass. Everybody’s an eligible receiver,” described Hill. “It’s a smaller field. It’s only 20 yards wide and 40 yards long, so games are very high-scoring. You have four downs to get to the 20, and that’s when you get a new set of downs, and you get four more downs to score a touchdown.”

The team competes on the varsity field with the shortened measurements. Games are typically on Wednesdays. The team plays a full HCC schedule and even competed at sectionals at the end of the season.

Being the first year of the sport, some difficulties were sure to arise.

“Nobody knew what to expect, because nobody had done it before,” Drosche said. “But I feel like we didn’t really have many things that were not great, minus the fact that it was just a learning year.”

Though it being a very different sport from classic football, the practices are strikingly similar.

“Basically, we’d go out there and stretch and stuff like that. And then we’d normally split in half, and one coach would do this play or drill, and then the other coach would do something else. And then we’d switch and do little stations. And then normally, at the end, we would scrimmage with each other,” Drosche recounted.

Coaches, partners, and athletes alike loved the sport and celebrated how it brought people together.

“The most inspiring part for me was seeing our partners and athletes, supporting them so much, celebrating them,” Hill said.

“They would all look forward to it. They all loved it. And they were all very confident,” Drosche said with a smile.

“I had a really good season,” athlete and frequent quarterback Ryan Hess said. “I scored four touchdowns! And I really liked [Coach Hill]. He was really nice.”

Despite the competitive aspect of the game and the prospect of a state tournament, the team does not revolve around winning—far from it.

“The goal is not really to win games. The goal is experience for both partners and athletes,” Hill said.

“It’s not supposed to be all about winning. It’s about working on helping people who need more help than others, and it’s also supposed to be fun,” Drosche said.

And, as Hess put it, “I had a really good season” because “I made a lot of new friends.”

Once the time comes for the team to start getting back together, the coaches will put up flyers and Schoology posts hoping to recruit new players.

“One group that I would like to try to get a little better is offseason athletes,” Hill noted. “You know, basketball players, track athletes, people like that. But our challenge isn’t as much the partners as it is getting athletes.”

Drosche mentioned that her experience with the unified flag team has made her interested in participating in flag football in the future.

“It’s kind of gotten me to look at colleges I’m applying to, if they have intramurals, because I did actually enjoy it more than I thought,” Drosche said. “I at first just did it because it gave me and my friend something to do, and then I actually ended up enjoying it a lot more than I thought.”

Unified flag football is a fall sport, so next season won’t begin for a handful of months. However, some of the Orioles who played flag football are also participating in unified track and field, AHS’s other unified sport, in the spring.

“I am [playing unified flag next year]. I’m also doing track,” Hess said.

The unified flag team is supported by their parents, whom Coach Hill praises highly. However, the team always appreciates it when students attend their games and support them. Coach Hill remarked that it made an impact on the players when “we had a few varsity football players come out to some of our home games.”

When the sport enters its second season, the team will look different as seniors such as Drosche graduate and new players join, but the players and coaches have faith that the team will continue to rise.

“I just know that in the next couple of years it’s going to be a really good thing,” Drosche said.

Unified flag football is just one example of what can result when people commit to working hard to help others and making friends. It’s something every Oriole should make an effort to see and support.