CLEVELAND — The Dru Joyce Classic, a youth basketball tournament bringing thousands of athletes from across the country to compete here in Cleveland, is back for its 19th year. This year tipped off a little early with a partnership between the Dru Joyce Classic and Special Olympics Ohio.
On Friday, over 600 kids from more than 32 schools took the many courts inside the I-X Center for a basketball tournament centered around opportunity and inclusion.
From elementary to high school-aged kids, the expo center was full of basketball players and first-time hoopers alike, competing together in the Unified Sports Experience. Teams were assembled based on schools and each team had rosters that had both players with and without developmental disabilities.
"A lot of kids with special needs don't always get the opportunity to experience things like this. Sometimes they’re sidelined, sometimes they don't make the varsity team or the JV team," said Bri Sumser, manager of Unified Sports. "But with Unified, everything we do is with students with and without intellectual disabilities. And that's what we have today. We have fellow peers playing side by side."
Those peers help each other on the courts. Athletes who didn't have much experience playing basketball were coached by their teammates who might be on their school's team or have played before.
For players like Syd Campbell, the opportunity to participate in the event provided something she had been longing for.
"My whole life I've been both too disabled and not disabled enough, so I've always been in this weird gray area, so I never even thought that I could participate in Special Olympics, but it's just been too hard for me to keep up in normal sports," she said. "It feels great, I'm competing with and against people of all different skill and ability levels. So I don't feel like I'm left out for once."
Hundreds of student-athletes came together for a day of competition, fun and unity. With smiling faces on each court, the Dru Joyce Classic tip-off appeared to be a success for both participants and organizers.
"As soon as I walked in I saw a young man hit a deep three and I'm like, 'Okay!' You could tell that, whether they have special needs or not, they love the game and they're enjoying themselves," Joyce said. "What I'm seeing is kids having fun and that's what's most important right now. Just that they have fun."
Special Olympics Ohio and the Dru Joyce Classic partnership hopes to continue the Unified Sports Experience for years to come, with an added goal of expanding to more schools and launching their programming within those schools.
The Dru Joyce Classic continues throughout the weekend at the IX Center, hosting around 300 youth basketball teams and coaches from around the country for the basketball tournament with athletes ranging from second grade to 11th grade.
This is the 22nd year of the tournament, which was previously hosted in Akron as the King James Shooting Stars Classic.
