MIDVALE, Utah — Throughout the last few months, the Hillcrest Unified Basketball team has been preparing for an upcoming tournament. The tournament, which began on February 4, has been on the minds of the players, who have been preparing for it for weeks.
The team is excited to participate in the tournaments and has been looking forward to the competition. One player on the team, Brayden, has enjoyed not only the tournaments in the past but also the preparation leading up to them. Brayden, who has been a member of the team for four years, said, “They were fun. I’ve liked them a lot.”
The preparations, which are vital to the team’s performance during the tournament, have been going on for a couple of months. According to Brayden, preparation includes “practicing a lot, being sure you’re ready, and making sure you sleep well enough for the tournament.”
Christine Cress, one of the advisors for the Husky Unified Champions Club, shared additional insight into what goes into getting the team ready to compete. “First, we have to find partner athletes,” Cress said. “We do practice once a week during APP—not a lot, just to get the feel of what we’re doing.”
Partner athletes, who are other students chosen to assist players on the team, play an important role. On the topic of who can be a partner, Cress, who has been at Hillcrest for nine years, said, “Most of our partners come through the peer tutoring program. They sign up as peer tutors, but anybody can be a partner. We have partnered with LIA in the past, and they’ve been partners. They were most of our partners during the soccer season.”
In addition to the enjoyment team members gain from the program, there are other benefits for both the athletes and the partners. “Our athletes definitely benefit from having same-age peers work with them, trust them, and call them teammates—it just creates a family bond,” Cress said. “The partners learn to work with people who don’t necessarily catch on to things as quickly as they do. They learn patience, and they learn how to accommodate and change some of the plays to meet what the students can do, especially if they’re in a wheelchair or move a little bit slower.”
The tournament season is not over. Following the February game, the team will compete in a regional tournament in March, followed by a statewide tournament.