Video: Fox Lane Students Turn Out to Support Special Olympics Basketball

"I think the athletes attending the game here today are getting more out of this than some of the kids on the court," Phil Ciccone said on Wednesday as he watched the Fox Lane special olympics team play a "homecoming" game in front of a packed gymnasium.

Ciccone, a physical education teacher at Fox Lane, credited a group of six middle school students with drawing over 300 student athletes to the game featuring the Fox Lane Pioneers—a team with a roster of students enrolled in Bedford Central's "Opportunities for Positive Transitions" program, which provides extra academic support and job coaching skills to help graduates integrate into community life.

At the beginning of the school year, the student volunteers decided to start a new program at Fox Lane Middle School called Sports Leadership.  From October through March, Sorvina Carr, Emily O'Mahoney, Caitlin Miles, Ben Sandler, Shane Reichert, and Eric Greenstien spent lunch together once a week with Ciccone and Andrea Caso, an intern from Manhattanville College, discussing sports and how leadership plays a major role in the success of athletes at every level.

With the guidance of Claudia Pacifico, coach of the Pioneers, the sports leaders practiced with the team. Other supporters of the program include Beth Staropoli, athletic director, and AnneMarie Berardi, middle school principal, who gave Sports Leadership approval to sponsor the event. Beth Walsh, who founded the Pioneers, announced the play-by-play action on Wednesday. 

Realizing few spectators ever watched the Pioneers play, the sports leaders organized the basketball homecoming game to give the athletes a chance to play in front of a home crowd. They also designed posters, made morning announcements and sold tee-shirts to promote the event to get as many spectators in the stands as possible. 

For game highlights and student interviews, check out the video posted with this story.