Keene High unified athletes to compete in Special Olympics USA Games in June

Keene Sentinel - 5/14/2022

May 14—Next month, two Keene High student-athletes will have the opportunity to compete at the Special Olympics USA Games in Orlando, Fla.

Sophomore Jack Elkan and junior Aidan Chapdelaine — both members of the Keene unified track team — will be joining over 100 other athletes from New Hampshire to participate in the Special Olympics, which runs from June 5-12.

Unified sports allow athletes with and without intellectual disabilities to compete together on the same team.

Both student-athletes will be competing in various track and field events, with Elkan going down as an athlete and Chapdelaine competing as a partner. Partners help the student-athletes with disabilities throughout their competitions.

"[Aidan] has years of experience working with special needs kids on unified teams, so he's coming to represent the partners," said Dan Gruber, who coaches unified sports at Keene High.

Gruber will also be heading down to Florida as part of the coaching staff.

Keene has fielded unified sports teams for the last decade or so, starting with basketball and expanding to include soccer and track and field.

All in all, more than 5,500 student-athletes and coaches from high schools around the country and the Caribbean will come together to compete at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando. There are 19 different sports, ranging from basketball to bocce and equestrian.

"It's like the real Olympics," Gruber said. "It's the real deal."

With the recent success that Keene has seen with the unified track and field program, Gruber said the Special Olympics reached out to him to nominate two student-athletes for the event in June. He chose to nominate Elkan and Chapdelaine.

"It was about athletic ability, but more about people who showed the spirit of Special Olympics and who we could trust to represent New Hampshire," Gruber said. "Both those guys are great kids and will represent Keene and New Hampshire really well."

There will be a send-off of all the New Hampshire unified athletes in Concord in early June, then the athletes will drive down to Boston Logan Airport with a police escort to fly down in Florida for the week-long competition.

"It's a little nerve-racking, but I'm really excited too," said Elkan. "It's a lot of mixed feelings."

"It's kind of amazing," said Chapdelaine. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing and I was qualified to do it. That's really amazing."

Both Elkan and Chapdelaine have been involved with unified sports throughout their high school careers. Elkan plays soccer and competes in track and field while Chapdelaine competes in those two sports along with basketball in the winter.

Chapdelaine started as a partner his freshman year and has participated in a unified sport every semester since then.

"I wanted to get into sports, and I didn't know where to start," Chapdelaine said. "I heard about unified, and I decided to join, had fun with it and then kept doing it for all seasons so far that I could."

With that dedication to unified sports, Chapdelanie now has the chance to compete on the national stage along with Elkan, a teammate and friend.

"We're pretty close," Elkan said of his relationship with Chapdelanie. "It's pretty cool to have a teammate by my side."

"It's a really great opportunity," Chapdelanie added. "I love being able to help people do stuff and this is one of the best opportunities to help people do stuff because it's sports. It's really fun to be able to help people do it."

Chris Detwiler can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1411, or cdetwiler@keenesentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter @Chris_Detwiler.

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