AIA approves addition of floorball to school's Unified Sports programs

Governing Body Story

Miranda Tomlinson

April 19, 2016

AIA approves addition of floorball to school's Unified Sports programs

Of the agenda items on the meeting minutes for the Arizona Interscholastic Association Executive Board Meeting, an item in particular that stood out to the members, and started the "fun part" of the meeting, was the possible addition of Unified Floorball, to be joined between the AIA and Special Olympics Arizona.

Districts and schools around Arizona have already started implementing Unified Sports to their programs and are continuously expanding those opportunities for Special Olympics athletes.

According to nfhslearn.com, "Unified Sports is an inclusive sports program that unites Special Olympics athletes (individuals with intellectual disabilities) and partners (individuals without intellectual disabilities) as teammates for training and competition."

AIA Unified Sports Coordinator James DeRose, who is passionate about both the Special Olympics and hockey as a sport, being a player himself, began his pitch by educating the Executive Board on the basics of floorball.

"Floorball is pretty much like ice hockey inside a gymnasium in a 50-by-90 area," DeRose said. "We're going to look to implement it in October and it will last until January 2017. The ball is very similar to a wiffle ball, it's really hollow, it's soft and there's no intense contact with it."

The safety aspect of his pitch was a very strong selling point for the board seeing as though other items on the meeting agenda were focused on concussion insurance and protocols.

"There's no real physical contact, you cannot raise the stick above your hip and as you can tell, it's pretty much just waist-high," DeRose added.

He then went on to explain how the Unified Sport would be set up, in regards to the number of athletes versus the number of partners.

The floorball team would consist of two athletes and two partners together as well as one athlete goalie and one partner goalie, DeRose said. Games would consist of two 15-minute halves, same as basketball.

He then opened up the floor to any questions regarding the guidelines of the sport itself. Members of the board were interested in what the stick for the sport was like and if they could cause any damage to gymnasium floors.

"It's pretty much just plastic," DeRose said. "It causes no damage to the gymnasium. There's no affects to it and there's no additional equipment."

With that comment, one of the members of the board expressed his concern about head and face equipment, as well as the additional expenses those would entail.

"It'll be just like a street hockey mask and they're around $30, not expensive at all, and a simple chest protector," DeRose said in regards to goalie equipment . "You could even wear two sweatshirts. It's not a costly expenditure."

Following DeRose's presentation of Unified Floorball, the Executive Board was to approve or deny the motion on the sport being added into the repertoire of the Unified Sports in which the schools will choose from, but not before the Executive Director of the AIA, Harold Slemmer, added a final comment.

"In 1968, in the summertime in high school back in Pennsylvania, we played a lot of gym hockey and we used to love that sport," Slemmer said. "I hope and I'm pretty sure it's (floorball) gonna be a lot more safe than it was back then."

The motion for the addition of Unified Floorball to be joined between the AIA and SOAZ was approved by the Executive Board Members for the schools to vote on when the time comes.

There supporting DeRose in his mission to implement floorball into the Unified Sports program was a member of the USA Floorball Association, Zack Geiser, and in the end, he was very happy about the outcome of the proposition.

"It's exciting for the USA Floorball Association because our ultimate goal is to expose what we consider a modern version of hockey to everybody and the foundation of that is for the youth," Geiser said. "Obviously they're the future of the sport but whether it's Special Olympics or Unified Sports, seeing kids have fun with floorball is our mission. It makes our hearts warm that these kids will be able to participate in hockey because floorball is safer and more affordable."

Sources:

James DeRose, AIA Unified Sports Coordinator (602) 541-4058

Zack Geiser, USA Floorball (408) 921-5850

Harold Slemmer, AIA Executive Director (602) 385-3811/ hslemmer@aiaonline.org