Months after a try and a miss at teaming up on varsity football, Wiscasset Middle High School and Boothbay Region High School are pursuing another pairing. Wiscasset School Department athletic director-assistant principal Mandy Lewis said Oct. 20, BRHS and WMHS are working to develop a unified basketball team for students with and without developmental disabilities.

“We’re still figuring out the details of what that would look like” for the two schools, Lewis told the Wiscasset School Committee Thursday night. Unified teams are Maine Principals Association-sanctioned and are carried out in collaboration with Special Olympics, she said.

A unified game is an incredibly powerful event, Lewis said. “It really brings students of all abilities together in a very positive, lighthearted, sometimes competitive, but really positive sort of way.”

BRHS Athletic Director-Dean of Students Allan Crocker confirmed in an email Friday, he has submitted an online form to the MPA, requesting to participate in unified sports. He has also submitted a funding request to Special Olympics. “This is all new to us, as it is to Wiscasset, so I am learning as I go,” Crocker writes.

Teams can seek up to $2,500 in funding for each of the first two years, Special Olympics Maine’s Unified Schools director Ian Frank said Friday.

Unified teams are bringing about camaraderie and friendships that spread beyond the court, into the lunchroom and after school, Frank said.

The “intent to participate” and the funding request to Special Olympics Maine to help on uniforms, stipends or other team costs are the only forms to fill out in joining MPA Unified Basketball, Mike Burnham, one of the MPA’s assistant directors, said Friday. MPA Unified Basketball will enter its third year in January and continues to grow, hopefully to 50 or more teams in the coming season, Burnham said.

Asked about the program, Burnham quickly said: ”Probably the best thing we’ve done.” Schools with unified teams have seen improvements in the schools’ culture as students with disabilities take part in a school team sport; they’re termed the athletes, while their non-disabled teammates are referred to as partners, because they get the ball to the members with disabilities and are not supposed to dominate the game, he said. “And they’re very good about that.” Burnham said spectators might not be able to tell athletes from partners as the games are conducted like any other, including the use of officials. The program includes a post-season, a gold ball and cutting of the net, he said.

Regions are assigned  for the season after all the teams are known, Burnham said. Other Mountain Valley Conference high schools with unified teams include Lisbon, Winthrop, Hall-Dale in Farmingdale and Oak Hill in Wales.

The program starts in the latter part of the school basketball season and takes center stage after February break, Burnham said. Teams that don’t qualify for the post-season or pass on it get to take part in a festival that gives them closure on the season, he said. Even with the schools that continue into the post-season, Burnham said, with unified sports, “It isn’t about the outcome, it’s about the opportunity.”

The MPA encourages smaller schools to join up on making unified teams. “So I think it’s great that Boothbay and Wiscasset are doing this together,” Burnham said. A team can have about 15 members — athletes and partners combined — but some have had as many as 17 or 18, Burnham said; the main thing is the MPA wants everyone to get to play, he said. A team is supposed to have at least three athletes and two partners on the court at all times, Burnham said.

WMHS and BRHS attempted a collaborative team for varsity football this year. No Wiscasset students showed up for fall practice and BRHS went club for the season.

Asked about the prospects for assembling the unified basketball team, Crocker writes: “I think having enough numbers will be a year to year struggle, but if we can offer this when we do have the numbers it will be a great thing. Two schools should help,” he writes.

Lewis told the school committee she’ll be excited to share more information as it becomes available.