Fossil Ridge High School is being honored by the Special Olympics for being the Unified Sports school of the year.
Unified Sports is a program that puts disabled students with their peers to play competitive sports like flag football or basketball.
According to Special Olympics representative Amy Turner, FRHS will be honored October 14 at the Special Olympics Hall of Fame for being active in Project Unify.
"If we didn't have Unified sports, we would have fractions of our student population that didn't really get to interact with each other," said Julie Chaplain, assistant principal at FRHS.
On Wednesday morning, students from the school met to practice for a new flag football team. The first game will be held on September 22.
Players enjoy it too. Like Jake McCartney, who has autism.
"I really like being out here with the team, with other people who have disabilities like I do," McCartney said. "It's just a joy that we get to spend some time doing stuff that people would say, 'hey you couldn't do.' We're getting chances."
Kids worked with high school football players to learn some of the same strategies football players use on the field.
This is the second year the school has done Unified Sports. Chaplain said she hopes other schools nearby get involved as well.
