For senior Aniyah Scott, unified track is about much more than just going to sectionals and winning. Seeing the happiness on the faces of her fellow athletes competing is one of her favorite memories.
“In the past two years we haven’t gone to state but we’ve placed higher each year, and the smiles on their faces to just hear our names get called warms my heart. It’s not a competition to them. It’s just the happiness of being a part of something which is something,” Scott said.
Unified track is relatively new to the state of Indiana. It combines together students who have intellectual disabilities with those who don’t. Since its introduction, the program has captured the attention of multiple schools who have gone on to implement it themselves as well. Here at LN, and across the state, it has been able to attract more and more interest. Scott has been with the program for three years.
“When I started unified track my sophomore year it was very senior based. Everyone in the club was a senior, and so we didn’t really have a lot of people who were going to go over into the next year,” Scott said.
With many schools starting to participate in the unified track program, students with disabilities are having more and more chances to associate and build friendships with their general education peers. One of these examples is Junior Jacob Gill. Gill makes connections with other students thanks to his involvement with collecting trays during lunch. However, Gill has also become more connected during his time at LN thanks to the unified track program.
“It’s been an amazing experience. There’s many new people to meet and get to know,” Gill said.
Going into this year, the program was faced with the departure of co-head coach Corey McGarrell. Since his absence, exceptional learners teacher Matt Deinlein has assumed the sole head coaching role. Deinlein elaborated on just what unified track entails.
“It’s an IHSAA varsity sport, so its just like any other varsity sport. Students actually letter in it, and it was developed in partnership with the Special Olympics model. We compete in five track events: the 100 meter dash, the 4 by 1 relay, the 400 meter dash, shot put and long jump. Buddy athletes are paired with an athlete with an intellectual disability, and they compete side by side at a competitive level in multiple track meets,” Deinlein said.
In his first year as solo head coach, Deinlein has also named Spenser Weiler as the assistant head coach. Weiler has worked with the LN program in the past and thinks unified track is really important for two things.
“It’s for people with disabilities to gain friends and also get some exercise and learn how to exercise. The obesity levels in people with disabilities is really high just because there’s not anybody pushing for them to really go work out, or there’s no resources for them to go work out. For example, they don’t have a ride to the gym or don’t have the means to pay for the gym, so I think that’s really important,” Weiler said.
Weiler continued on by noting another benefit that unified track provides.“I think it’s really important also for people without disabilities to know how to work with other people who look differently than they do, work differently than they do, and then just be apart of something that they wouldn’t typically be apart of,” she said.
Unified track gives opportunities not only to students with intellectual disabilities, as well as coaches, but also the general education students. With a total of 21 participants, there is abundant opportunities to meet new people and get to know each other. For Scott, this experience will also serve as some early exposure into a field of work she’s currently interested in pursuing.
“The reason why I’m in it is because I enjoy being able to make the friendships with students in our school that do have learning disabilities. They don’t typically get the connections with people, so I thought that it’s good for me to be that friend or be that partner with them. Also, I want to be a special education teacher, so it’s a good career path experience to get,” Scott said.
Another general education student in unified track is senior Summer Wickham. Wickham has been in the program for two years and has participated in multiple events. She also gets to have the unique perspective of watching her fellow athletes with disabilities compete.

“I love how they get hyped and cheer for each other. It just warms my heart to see how they get happy when you say ‘good job’ and stuff,” Wickham said.
Unified track is looking to continue its upward trend of growing more and more each year. With continued growth, the program will be able to keep providing this unique opportunity to all who are involved.
“I’ve brought people in and the more we get people to know about what it is, the more people have joined. I think this year our numbers are higher than they ever have been. People are showing more interest in wanting to be apart of it, but I think the reason people have not become apart of it is because they don’t know about it,” Scott said.
One effort to spread awareness about unified track was displayed at this years open house, where the program had their own table. Increased awareness and involvement will allow unified track to continue functioning and allowing all who are involved to keep being apart of this unique experience.
“Everybody has talents and they just need an opportunity in order to show what they’re good at,” Weiler said.