For Old Rochester Regional High School’s Rebecca Okolita, coaching the school’s new Unified Basketball team feels like coming full circle. Okolita, a special education teacher and advisor, is no stranger to basketball at ORR, as she played from 1994 to 1998, when she was in school. Her team was state champion one year, and she still plays in the alumni games. 

Four years ago she moved into teaching special education students. She came back to ORR when she realized that it was hiring for a job she always wanted: transition teacher, helping students with special needs transition into careers. 

Unified sports offer special needs students to play sports alongside their peers.The school already had a unified track team, started with the Special Olympics program. When Okolita heard that the school was starting another team in the sport she loved so much “I jumped on it.” 

The team consists of special education players and their partners. Right now players are working on learning to count together during warmups, learning each others’ names and layup lines.

Partners often step up to lead drills or small sections of practice, and Okolita said that she was “so impressed with their leadership and compassion.” 

When she first started the role she was a little nervous, but also knew after the first practice that she had something special in the team. She called coaching some of her students and their peers “one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.” 

Though the team started with low enrollment, a hallway lined with student-cheerleaders encouraged the team as it headed to its first game in Middleborough.

“We always have great support from the administration and community,” Okolita said. 

At an Oct. 23 school committee meeting Principal Michael Devoll said that the team has “kind of taken over the school the last couple weeks. And it’s been an awesome experience for the whole school. He also said that Okolita got immediate support from the school’s athletic booster club when she went before them. 

And once students got a taste of what the team was like, they started wanting to join. Okolita said in the future she may be able to start two teams at Old Rochester. 

Unified basketball has three models for games: play development, recreational and competitive. The first focuses on building athletes’ skills, the second on having fun, and the third most resembles a traditional game. Okolita has her team in the play development games. 

Unlike the basketball that Okolita knows, in play development there is no three second rule, players are allowed a few steps of travel, and fouls count against players if they make them. (Okolita said her players are good and usually do not). Games also have twenty minute running halves instead of quarters. 

Aaron Allen-Murdock said he joined the team because “I love basketball, giving back and seeing smiles on faces.” 

He comes from a “big sports family” and has done clinics with professionals, including the Celtics’ Isaiah Thompson. He played basketball his freshman year, but now just plays on a travel team or on more informal five on five games. 

“I wanted to be able to do that for others,” he said, of the inspirational coaching he received from Thompson and others. 

And even though the first season isn’t over yet, he can already see how the team has gotten closer.