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Juniata County School Board hears proposal to add bocce

MIFFLINTOWN — Juniata Indians and East Juniata Tigers fans are used to cheering for their high school boys and girls basketball, wrestling and air rifle teams during the winter months.

They might soon have another sport to support —

unified indoor bocce.

East Juniata High School Life Skills Special Education teacher and Mifflin-Juniata Special Olympic Athletics Coordinator Marcus Brothers pitched a proposal to add indoor bocce to the Juniata County School District board members during their workshop meeting at the Administration Office in Mifflintown Wednesday night.

Bocce, a game with elements of bowling and shuffleboard – think curling, without the ice – dates back to the Roman Empire. In the 1980s, it was introduced as a sport to paralympic play, and today is among the most-played sports in Special Olympics.

The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association, the state’s oversight body for scholastic sports, partnered several years ago with Special Olympics Pennsylvania to create unified sports – competition that includes both special needs students and those in the regular curriculum.

“It helps to have those students to have more of a voice in your school culture,” Brothers said.

Mifflin County High School fielded a unified bocce team for the first time for the 2021-22 winter sports season. The team competes as a member of the Mid-Penn Conference. Matches are played inside the Mifflin County High School main gym.

United bocce allows student-athletes of all abilities to compete, earn varsity letters and be included in the high school athletics experience. Any student that is in grades 9 to 12 or is receiving services from the school district up until age 21 is eligible to play.

Brothers said a unified bocce team must have at least three Special Olympics-eligible athletes (defined as having an intellectual disability, development disability or some type of autism or cognitive delay) as well as three students without a disability. There can be additional team members if the minimum number of Special Olympics-eligible athletes is met.

Unified track and field is also offered as well as soccer in the Philadelphia region.

Brothers said Special Olympics covers the setup costs and salaries for coaches as well as uniforms, court and other equipment. He added the program would likely be a co-op between the two Juniata County schools in order to meet the minimum number of students that meet Special Olympics’ eligibility requirements.

Mifflin County competes against Halifax, Upper Dauphin, Red Land and Lower Dauphin in the Mid-Penn as well as Bald Eagle Area, State College and Bellefonte in non-league matches.

Juniata and East Juniata are members of the Tri-Valley League and compete against Halifax and Upper Dauphin in other sports. Juniata belongs to the Mid-Penn’s Liberty Division in football.

Mifflin County became competitive very quickly, capturing the school’s first state title during its augural season.

Superintendent of Schools Christie Holderman recommended the indoor bocce proposal be added to the agenda for board members to vote on at their regular meeting on Thursday, Feb. 16.

In other business, Holderman asked board members to consider using funds from capital reserves to fund repair projects that have lingered around the district.

They include paving at East Juniata High School; replacing carpet floor tile at Tuscarora Junior High School; replacing the roof and doors at Juniata High School; and replacing windows at Mountain View Elementary School.

“This is a result of not taking care of things over the past few years,” Holderman said. These items will also be added to the agenda for board members to vote at its next meeting.

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