Students from Francis Polytechnic Senior High and Verdugo Hills High School fight for the ball in the first game of the Northern League Basketball Tournament. (Daniella Segura / Neon Tommy)

The Northern League Basketball Tournament is part of the Unified Sports Program, which brings both general and special education students together to play on a team and compete with other schools from the area. 

This is the third year that the Los Angeles School District (LAUSD) is hosting the tournament, and it’s the second year that LAUSD has partnered with Special Olympics Southern California. 

“In three years we’ve gone from six to 28 schools,” said Teri Hayden, who is with the Adaptive Physical Education program at LAUSD.

“When we first started this three years ago, we said ‘let’s just fly up the flag pole and see if anybody salutes,’ and clearly from the expansion, people saluted,” Hayden added.

The 28 teams are divided into four leagues and each league holds their own tournament, according to Hayden. The Northern League Basketball Tournament is the first of four tournaments and the other three competitions will take place next week. From each of these tournaments, two teams will go on to the city finals at the Edward Roybal Learning Center School in two weeks. 

The Northern League Basketball Tournament is an event that takes a number of volunteers to pull off and among the most devoted volunteers are the coaches of each team. 

“Coaching a team of both general and special education students is difficult task,” said Jorge Ramirez, coach and special education assistant at Francis Polytechnic Senior High. 

However, Ramirez, who has been coaching for the past two years, believes coaching a team with special needs students is no different from teaching a team of general education students. 

“From this experience, I want all my students to gain character,” Ramirez said. “I want them to gain pride and be able to walk around our campuses, out in the street and the world with their heads held up high.” 

Kevin Cervantes, a 17-year-old basketball player for Francis Polytechnic Senior High, said he thinks that the tournament’s main purpose was for special needs students to feel like champions. 

“They [special education students] are something special,” Cervantes said. “We are trying to help them get a victory and win a trophy. It’s all about them, and that’s how it should be.”

Though there will inevitably be winners and losers in these tournaments, Melissa Erdmann, a manager at LAUSD Sports for Special Olympics Southern California, said that it does not matter who wins. 

“I think the biggest thing is for them [the students] to realize that everyone has differences,” Erdmann said. “It’s just a matter of embracing people with differences and it becoming the norm. “

Erdmann also sees this event becoming more widespread in the future. 

“We are seeing a high level interest from other LAUSD schools, so we will continue to see this branching out into different leagues,” Erdmann said.  

Despite that much of tournament was for the enjoyment of the high school students, it was just as much for the enjoyment of the parents.  

Dexder Zagela, who has an 18-year-old daughter in the special needs program at John F. Kennedy High School, said that as a parent of a special needs child, to see his daughter play on a basketball team is one of the most rewarding things he has experienced.  

“So long as she is happy, I will always be happy,” Zagela said. His daughter, Guinevere Zagela, had meningitis as an infant and developed a short-term memory loss. 

“She tends to forget stuff like what she did yesterday,” Zegala explained. “But when it comes to these kinds of events, like sports, it tends to stay in her memory. I’m pretty sure that in the long-term, she will still remember events like the one today.” 

Guinevere, who was among the smallest students on her team - yet was one of the quickest - said the best part about being able to participate in the basketball tournament is having the chance to play her favorite sport. 

“I am so proud of my team,” Guinevere said. “I have an awesome team and awesome coach.” 

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