ASAA 2017 Unified Bocce Tournament
May 30, 2017 by admin
Filed under Provincial and Territorial News
Unified Bocce – Lethbridge
Unified Sports Bocce Tournament in Lethbridge in partnership with Alberta Schools’ Athletic Association is presented by Winston Churchill High School. This is the first Unified Sport event in southern Alberta!
The bocce competition will have 20 students from Winston Churchill High School, Immanuel Christian High School and Magrath High School competing from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
@wchslethbridge hosts Unified Bocce Outdoor Festival – the first such event in @ASAA South Zone: http://www.lethsd.ab.ca/view.php?action=object&id=51201&stream=Homepage%20News …
@ASAA @LethSD51 Great Day for the first Unified Sport Event in Southern AB! Churchill Rocks! @wchslethbridge
Winston Churchill High School hosts Unified Bocce Outdoor Festival
Friday, Winston Churchill High School hosted the first Alberta School Athletic Association Unified Sports event ever to be staged here in the South Zone.
Jonathan Dick, Tony Quan and Toby Boulet organized the 2017 WCHS Unified Bocce Tournament, which included participants from WCHS, Immanuel Christian High School and Magrath High School.
Five teams took to the field for the Special Olympics Unified Sports event, which aimed to bring athletes with and without intellectual disabilities together for competition and socialization. The program is intended to create an environment where meaningful competition can take place, as coaches must strive to create an atmosphere that’s supportive, fun and competitive.
Katherine Dalusong, Marketing and Communications Manager for Special Olympics Alberta, attended the Lethbridge event, and spoke about the growth of Unified Sports.
“We’re incredibly proud to be able to bring Unified Sport to Canada. With our partnership with Alberta Schools’ Athletic Associations, we’ve been able to host eight Unified Sport events in Alberta.”
Dalusong added she was pleased to see Lethbridge jump on board.
“The Winston Churchill High School Unified Bocce event will be our first Unified Sport event in southern Alberta, and we’re delighted that three high schools are taking part in this event. We see great growth and potential to reach out to more schools who have embraced the full inclusive spirit of sport. For the 2016 Unified Bocce season, we saw 80 athletes and partners take part in the Unified Bocce competitions in Edmonton and Calgary.”
For Dalusong, the United Sports events go a long way towards bringing people together to celebrate sport.
“We’re looking forward to breaking stereotypes about people with intellectual disabilities and showing we can all play on the same team.”
WCHS athletic director Toby Boulet added the event was a positive experience for participants.
“The student athletes from the three schools had a great time. There was lots of apprehension at the start, but by the end there was so many smiles.”
Boulet is looking to make the Unified Bocce Tournament even bigger in 2018.
“We expect many more teams and schools, as this will become an annual event at Churchill to celebrate the many fantastic students in all of our schools. We have eight bocce sets and we only used two, so there is room to grow.”
Date posted: May 29, 2017
Special Olympics program expansion brings bocce tournament to Edmonton

Students from Bev Facey High School compete in a Unified basketball competition run by Special Olympics Alberta and the Alberta Schools’ Athletic Association last year. Unified Sports allow students with and without intellectual disabilities to compete on the same teams. The Alberta initiative has recently added bocce to the roster for the 2016-2017 school year.