The Brownsville Independent School District will host the inaugural Rio Grande Valley Unified UIL Area track meet Tuesday afternoon at Veterans Memorial Early College High School.
Teams from each of BISD’s six high schools will compete, with the top three teams advancing to regional competition.
Unified UIL track and field, as well as the just-completed Unified UIL basketball season, are the result of a 12-year effort by Brownsville businessman Sergio Zarate and others on both sides of the political aisle to pass Senate Bill 776 during the 87th Texas Legislature.
Otherwise known as Zariah’s Law, the bill took effect Sept. 1 2021. Zarate’s daughter Zariah, a special needs student, attends Veterans Memorial.
The law named after her is intended for children like Zariah to have the chance to play competitive sports, not just for the competitive aspect but also to receive the long-term benefits of coaching and being part of a team.
BISD has been working since last year to implement Zariah’s Law. Tuesday’s meet will feature teams of special needs athletes, each paired with a non-disabled partner.
Teams will compete in boys and girls four by 100 relays, the 100-meter and 400-meter dash, with long jump and shotput as field events. Scoring will be on a team basis.
BISD Assistant Athletic Director Sandra Powers, who for years headed up the district’s Special Olympics programs and now oversees Unified UIL competition, said a transformation is taking place.
“It’s just amazing how far the teams have come, because they learned the basic skills, from how to do a relay team, and to pass a baton, to learning the distances they have to run and procedures: how to do a long jump, how to throw a shotput, sometimes for the first time ever, for both the athlete and the partner,” she said during a tri meet last week as Hanna, Rivera and Veterans Memorial teams prepped for the area meet.
“Athletes and coaches from the general track program have helped them a lot. So there’s a lot of bonding and friendships that have developed, and that’s the special part, I think, of this new division of athletics — kids are being kinder to each other and respecting each other’s differences and wanting to help each other to compete, to win the next event. It’s fun to watch. It’s fun to be a part of it. It’s special,” she said.
“Our district has really made a huge commitment to it, a budget has been set for it, now we’re waiting for the other districts to join in and we hope they do.”
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