Ocean View High named Special Olympics National Banner Unified Champion School
The mission of Unified Sports really hit home with Ocean View High Principal Robert Rasmussen about a year ago.
Rasmussen was at a Unified Sports basketball tournament, where adapted physical education students who have intellectual disabilities team up with those without intellectual disabilities.
He sat next to a parent whose child was competing.
“They were beaming with love and happiness, watching their student play,” he said. “Then their smiles turned to tears. I wondered what was happening.
“I asked the parent, Why are you crying?’ They said to me, ‘This is the first time ever when I’ve watched my child in an environment where they’ve competed at youth sports.’”
Rasmussen, who has two young daughters who play AYSO soccer, realized not everyone has the same opportunities. But Ocean View, a school that is known for the saying, ‘You can’t spell ‘Love’ without ‘OV,’ has been a leader in the Unified Sports movement.
Ocean View has been selected as a Special Olympics National Banner Unified Champion School for 2022. The school held back-to-back schoolwide assemblies on Nov. 16, for a banner presentation ceremony in recognition of the honor.
Ocean View was one of 166 schools honored nationwide this year, including nine in Southern California. Special Olympics International selected the schools for meeting 10 standards of excellence relating to commitment to inclusion. The primary activities within the standards are Special Olympics Unified Sports, inclusive youth leadership and whole-school engagement.
The assemblies last week featured speeches from teachers and officials and performances by the Unified Sound and Cheer groups before a short exhibition Unified Sports basketball game. Attendees included Huntington Beach Union High School District Board of Trustees President Bonnie Castrey and school board members Duane Dishno and Diana Carey.
Ocean View teacher Courtney Gillett serves as the Huntington Beach Union High School District liaison for Unified Sports.
“Every single person who has participated in any part of Unified Sports here at Ocean View has made a difference in someone’s life,” Gillett said. “This is a day to celebrate inclusion, it’s a day to celebrate our school and it may be the most proud day of my career ... It takes the want and drive to become a National Banner School, and the students at Ocean View definitely have both.”
Micayla Shook, a 2018 Ocean View High graduate who graduated from UCLA last spring, returned to the Seahawks campus to give a speech at the assemblies. Shook spearheaded the movement that led to Unified Sports coming to the campus.
Shook, who was a girls’ soccer and cross country/track star at Ocean View, said she has a younger brother who was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder at the age of 2.
“Ocean View has always strived to make this community a place of love and acceptance and inclusion,” she said. “When I was a junior, I felt there was more that Ocean View could do to be inclusive and make these students feel like they had a community and were accepted on campus. I started working on this program my junior year. My parents and I were super-hyped for this program to happen, so my brother could finally be part of a team. As younger brothers do, he chose to do the opposite of what I asked him to do, which was participate. But it was OK.”
Shook said she had 20 volunteers to join when she started the Unified Sports program. By the end of her senior year, she said there were more volunteers than athletes.
“When I was here, Unified was created with the intention of being a place of no judgement,” she said. “Everyone can show up, have a good time and make these memories through sports ... It’s a collaborate environment.”
The district’s executive director of special education, Doug Siembieda, said the honor was well-deserved. He has a son who graduated from Ocean View last year and noticed several of his friends looking out into the audience at the assemblies.
“Recognizing that we have differences but we can still be together, despite our differences, that’s the value of all of this,” Siembieda said. “That’s why we do it. You guys can all participate as one group and one unit, and learn from each other, regardless of your abilities or disabilities. I think that’s what we want everybody to take away from this — friendships, relationships and the ability to be involved regardless of who you are.”
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