By Greg Mellen

Jaydon Rodin got a loud cheer as he performed a cartwheel through a greeting line of cheerleaders into the stadium for the inaugural Teal Town Tournament at Aliso Niguel High.

Rodin, a student at Capistrano Valley High, thrust his fists into the air to further announce his arrival at the Olympic-style sports event for special education high school students at the Aliso Viejo school.

More than 100 STEPS (Structured Teaching, Educationally based, Promoting Independence & Student-centered instruction) students from all six of the Capistrano Unified School District general education high schools attended. They were accompanied by teachers, families, friends, and supporters who made their way into the Wolverines’ home stadium to take part in the games.

“In the past, we partnered with the Special Olympics,” said Dana Hills Principal Brad Baker.

The Special Olympics partnership ended during the pandemic, and Baker and district officials wanted to bring back the event when pandemic restrictions were lifted.

“We talked about it and said, ‘Let’s bring it back,’” Baker said. “It’s the best event of the year.”

So, Dana Hills High hosted a smaller event in which other schools in CUSD were invited if they could arrange transportation. Few did.

This year, Kirstee Radley, a Special Education teacher at Aliso Niguel High, convinced Principal Michael Hatcher to let her take on the event. Radley had run the competition at Dana Hills High.  She was able to secure grants to pay for transportation from all the schools — and that changed everything.

“That’s a biggie,” David Georgia, a Special Education teacher at Dana Hills, said. “It’s a pretty large undertaking. There are a lot of moving parts.”

Hatcher said although specifics remain to be worked out, his hope is the tournament will rotate through the CUSD high school campuses in coming years to make it truly district-wide.

This year’s tournament consisted of just four events: a 100-yard dash, long jump, softball throw, and a run-walk-wheelchair event. All participants received medals for competing as well as lunch and an informal post-event concert while students awaited buses to return them to their home campus.

All about uplifting

In addition to the cheerleader-line greeting, participants were met with signs ringing the field with positive messages, such as “United in Sport, United in Purpose;” “Ability Knows No Limits;” and “Inclusion Champions.” Other signs encouraged individual athletes, like Lilly, Andrew, and Diego.

The San Clemente High Sparklers cheer team performed prior to the meet and Special Education student Tyler sang the National Anthem. Music was provided by DJ Noah Torgeson, himself a graduate of the district’s Adult Transition Program, and available for parties and events.

This being an inaugural event, the tournament was not without hiccups. The dash and the run/walk, on different ends of the field and going in different directions, were set off simultaneously and were headed on a collision course.

Luckily, a calamity was averted when emcee Matthew Radley quickly called out, “OK, that was a good warm up. Now back to the start lines.”

From there, the events went on unimpeded. Well, other than the first heat of dashers that didn’t stop after 100 yards. That hardy group ran the entire 400-meter loop around the football field.

Encompassing all abilities

The athletes spanned a wide spectrum of talent, which is what it’s all about.

There was Tesoro senior Zachary Chibanda, a sprinter who clocked a personal record 12.57 seconds in the 100 meters in a varsity dual meet against San Juan Hills High. Running in sneakers and without his usual warm-ups, Chibanda blitzed the field in his heat of the 100.

“You killed it,” a teammate called out.

“I killed it, yep,” Chibanda replied.

Kevin Corbett, a Special Education teacher at Tesoro, said the STEPS student tried out for and made the Titans track team as a freshman having never run competitively.

Paul Freeman, a sophomore at San Juan Hills High, competed in the long jump to cheers from a large contingent of students chanting “Paul, Paul, Paul.”

Afterward, Freeman exchanged high-fives and fist daps with his rooting section.

“Paul is the most popular kid here,” said Hudson Turner, a senior at SJHHS who made a personalized sign for Freeman. “He’s at the top of the podium.”

“They call him Mr. Mayor,” Radley said of Freeman, who she taught before he transferred to San Juan Hills.

Then there was Rodin, the cartwheel kid. Rodin is an honorary player for Capo Valley’s football team and came into a game against Mission Viejo during the season to score a touchdown.

Before taking off for his long-jump attempts, Rodin lined up in a football three-point stance.

Another competitor, Dana Hills sophomore Brandon Alonso, exhorted the crowd to count down from 10 before he took off down the runway to the long-jump pit. Another time he had the crowd spell out his name.

“Give me a B!”

“If we had a social chair, he’d be it,” Georgia said. “Anything big and new, he loves it.”

Throughout the event, STEPS and general education students mixed seamlessly.

“You can see it with the hats that say ‘Inclusion Revolution,’” Superintendent Christopher Brown said of baseball caps that were handed out to participants and teachers. “It’s just another way to engage all students, letting them know they belong at Capistrano Unified.”

“It’s good to integrate into the community as much as we can our STEPS students with our gen-ed students,” Hatcher said. ”It is important for their growth and to benefit gen-ed.”

Summing up the inaugural event, Radley said, “I think it was a fabulous day, for the buddies and the athletes. It was awesome.”

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