Having Unified Sports at Lake Stevens high school is a big accomplishment for students who need extra support. The high school has multiple unified teams: basketball, soccer and track. A new development is also unified PE, which will be a class for the next school year.
Unified Sports include athletes those with intellectual and or physical disabilities and partners without those.
Some students with disabilities actually played for a while before joining the LSHS unified team and got the opportunity to keep playing and create new friendships.
“In Honduras, I played three years over here, this is my fourth year,” sophomore Victor Cortez-Tejada said.
This program was not always at LSHS. While Unified Soccer has been a team since 2022, unified basketball, track and PE are new developments to include our classmates with disabilities.
Eric Solbakken was a big help in the making of Unified Sports at LSHS. He started the Unified Sports program at Shorewood high school while he was the head coach there. When he got his teaching job at LSHS, the question about unified sports came up in his interview.
It was important to him for a Unified Sports program to integrate at Lake Stevens high school. After lots of planning and meetings, he got the green light, and Unified Soccer became a team.
Unfortunately, when the program was about to start, COVID hit and delayed the program. It wasn’t until after the lockdown was lifted, Unified Soccer was able to commit to a season and start playing.
Unified Sports at LSHS will continue to grow and create an inclusive environment, unifying the entire LSHS student body.
Like every Unified Sports team at Lake Stevens high school, they practice two days a week for an hour. This includes the athletes and their partners.
In the spring season, Unified Soccer started their 3rd season. They consist of 6 athletes and 6 partners. They played 4 games at Shorewood Stadium. The number of games won or lost and the score are not tracked, although at districts, the score is kept. In the end, the team won both games and finished the season strong.
Unified Sports would not be what it is without the partners helping the athletes. While coaching is a big part of the team that staff help with, the students who volunteer to be partner players really make the difference for the athletes.
“I wanted to participate in Unified Sports, because these kids, I’ve grown up with, and a lot of them my mom has taught, so I have been in classes with them. They get treated differently, so I wanted them to be part of the high school groups and experience things that regularly developed kids get to experience,” sophomore McKenna Grennan said.
Their last game was Saturday, May 10th. Ending it in a double win, and that completed the Unified Soccer season of 2025, as well as all unified sports of the 2025 school year.
The season has been great for the athletes. Playing in different cities and towns and going against other teams has been an exciting and significant bonding experience for the team.
“I like playing in games against different teams, playing with my pals and passing the ball with each other. It’s been a fun year, we get to go to districts this weekend in Seattle,” sophomore Ben Nye said.
The Unified Sports program at Lake Stevens high school is still new and in development, but as time goes on, the students with intellectual and or physical disabilities will have the same
experiences just like any other student. Although, with limitations to accommodate their needs so they can be as comfortable as possible.
Within the next school year, Unified PE will be an added class at Lake Stevens high school. It has the same sort of guidelines as Unified Sports, but will be an actual class. Everyone taking the class, students with and without intellectual and or physical disabilities, will receive a grade and a gym credit, which is a graduation requirement.
The class will be laid out a little differently from other gym courses with accommodations and modifications for students with intellectual and or physical disabilities. It’s yet to be determined because of the early developments how it will be different, but it will most likely have the same games & sports being played as any other PE class.
“It’s supposed to be a 30-person class. Essentially, 16 partners and 14 athletes is the ratio. And so legally for it to be a not a special education class, it needs to be percentages above 50% non-special,” Solbakken said.
While the class may be foreign to students and even teachers, getting to know the athletes and what the program strives for is a learning experience for anyone. It’s encouraged for people to sign up for the class and be involved with classmates from every background.
