Massachusetts high school adds unified strength and conditioning team

A Massachusetts high school has expanded its unified sports offering with the addition of a strength and conditioning team.

Wareham High School unveiled the unified strength and conditioning team coached by the school’s occupational therapist, Marybeth Kiernan, who also helps with the school’s unified basketball and track teams.

Unified sports is a Special Olympics program that gives kids with special needs the opportunity to compete in team sports.

A recent article in Wareham Week detailed the unified strength and conditioning team and what it has meant to the athletes. Below is an excerpt from the Wareham Week article.

Adding the sport to the unified athletics department was important to Kiernan because she said she wanted kids to have a way to stay active in between basketball and track season.

“My goal was to help kids create healthy lives, and I accomplished that,” Kiernan said. “Also, the ability to be with the kids twice a week was great.”

The team did not just give kids an opportunity to be healthy; Kiernan said they excelled at it. At the conclusion of their nine-week season, the Vikings were the number one ranked unified strength and conditioning team in the state.

The strength and conditioning competitions looked different than most other sports. Kiernan explained how it worked: they would take initial benchmark measurements on a variety of exercises like running in the hallway and wall sits, and she would track the kids’ progress and report the numbers to Special Olympics. The teams that showed the most progress were ranked higher.

“When we first started, I would have kids run in the hallway, and most of them walked, but by the end of it, most of them ran the entire way,” Kiernan said. “I also increased the number of times they did it so they were running for longer periods of time.”

The ranking at the end of the season was not the only success. Kiernan said many kids experienced near unprecedented levels of growth and gained confidence throughout their nine weeks together.

“I would be handing out weights and the kids would say ‘I can’t do this it’s too heavy’ and within no time at all they were doing things they didn’t think they could do,” Kiernan said. “Some of them hold a plank for a minute and they never thought they would be able to do that. They learned how to do hard things and keep going.”

Bill and Shelly Mobilia saw a lot of physical growth for their son Bryson, who was diagnosed with low muscle tone.

“He’s slimming down, and it’s also calmed him down,” Bill said. “It’s always been difficult to go for a walk or go hiking because of his low muscle tone, so this has been a huge help.”

To read the full article from Wareham Week, click here.