Unified bowling is a variation of the sport of bowling, part of the Special Olympics Unified Sports® initiative, where teams are composed of students with and without intellectual disabilities. Oviedo High School’s Unified bowling team had its inaugural season this year, to great success. The team, composed of exceptional education students as well as PIT (Peer Inclusion Team) Crew members, won their district match in September.

The idea of Unified bowling was brought to Oviedo in May 2025. The exceptional education teachers, including Oviedo’s speech language pathologist, Sasha Ruiz, were approached with the idea.

“It was kind of a manic episode. We just all looked at each other and said, ‘This sounds like fun. Are we in?’ And we all said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it,’” Ruiz said. “And so we just jumped right in and started planning and signing up. And next thing I knew, we had a whole team.”

Bowling is a fall sport, and Unified bowling is no different. Since the team had to begin almost as soon as the school year started, over the summer, Ruiz, who became the coach of the team, had to learn a lot, fast—not only how to coach bowling, but also how to bowl properly, since she had no prior knowledge.

“The learning process was steep,” said Ruiz. “I had to go to a coaching seminar over the summer where I met with a lot of the other bowling coaches, and they kind of went over techniques and how to coach and things like that.”

Ruiz recruited students from the self-contained exceptional education classes, as well as PIT Crew members. Some members of the new team already had bowling experience, such as senior Kalyn Trent, who previously won a gold medal for bowling in the Special Olympics.

“They [the students with prior experience] definitely required less coaching,” Ruiz said.

Modifications to the traditional rules of bowling were also made to increase the accessibility of the sport.

“Our bowling style is a lot different than our varsity bowling team, where they might bowl with one hand and have special balls, we might be rolling with two hands at a time to make sure we can get a good grip on that ball, and throw it straight down the lane,” Ruiz said.

In keeping with the team’s inclusive nature, an effort was made to create a welcoming environment for the players.

“I think it just starts from the top down. So the coaches having in mind that we’re just here to have fun and have a good time,” Ruiz said. “I think that really helped trickle down to all the kids, and then knowing that our kids all worked really well together, and they all kind of knew each other, and they were just excited to have a fun activity to do after school with all their friends.”

Ruiz and the other coaches were successful in their attempts to encourage a “try your best” attitude, as she described it. As a result of spending a season together, the players on the team grew closer to their coach and each other.

“I really love her [Ruiz] so much because about the way that she smiles, she laughs,” said senior Jordyn Langford, another player on the team. Langford, who is one of the students in the exceptional education classes, went on to say, “I love her so much, and I give her a big hug, too.”

The team would drive in two separate cars to the bowling alley before their games, creating bonding opportunities between the players; they would listen to music, dance, and have fun before the pressure of the games. These car rides ultimately ended up being many of the players’, and Ruiz’, favorite parts of the entire season.

“The car rides with… listening to my music [were one of my favorite parts of the season],” said Lorelai Gardenour, a senior player and student in exceptional education. “Kalyn was so funny in the car, we’re dancing… and seeing… when Jordyn was happy, like, we had a good time.” 

The PIT Crew students work with the exceptional education students daily, but usually only for one class period. Unified bowling offered the unique opportunity for both groups to become closer.

“We’re just like, it’s like a big family,” said Allie Geary, senior PIT Crew student and Unified bowling team member. “We’re all very comfortable with each other, and, like, it’s not awkward, and we all work together very well.”

Trent felt the team’s aforementioned cooperation was its most special trait.

“Teamwork… [and] girl power [make the team special],” Trent said, alluding to the fact that the seven-person team had five female players. “Boy power too,” she added, remembering senior player Yash Kulkarni and junior player Jason Maitland.

This teamwork powered their extremely successful inaugural season. The team won their district match in September, becoming district champions. Ultimately, they lost at regionals by only seven pins, just narrowly missing a bid to states.

“Yeah, we’re definitely going to do our bowling team again next season. We’re looking forward to, I think, we had an amazing inaugural season, and we just really want to build on those successes, but we also want to build other unified teams,” Ruiz said. “So we’re getting ready to launch our unified basketball team, with tryouts in November.”

A crucial element to the success of any team, past, present, or future, is players who possess leadership skills. Due to a game rule forbidding the coaches from entering a certain area in the alley during games, the three PIT Crew students on the team—Geary, Maitland and junior Haylee Richards—often had to take charge. This sometimes posed a challenge, especially in the heat of the moment during games.

“The whole time we’re bowling, like, they [the coaches] can talk to us from the side, but for the most part, it’s just, like, me, JJ [Maitland] and Haylee with the kids… we all work very well together, but they all have big personalities,” Geary said. “So… when we have to keep it in, like, a certain routine, sometimes it’s difficult to, like, make sure everyone’s really focused… but at the end of the day, we all have a great time… it’s just very… hectic in the moment.”

As anyone who has bowled before will know, gutter balls, where the ball veers off of the lane and falls into the gutter with no chance of recovery, are a challenging thing to avoid. They’re detrimental to success in bowling, as well, because getting a gutter ball makes it impossible to knock any pins down in that frame. 

As it turns out, the team is no stranger to gutter balls, and they were cited by Ruiz, Trent, and Gardenour as the most challenging part of being on the team. One of the chief focuses of Ruiz’ coaching was emotional management, for when a perfectly good delivery ends up in the gutter. As part of the team’s effort to foster a genial atmosphere, they adopted a motto: “Oh well!”

“What do we say when we get a gutter ball?” Ruiz asked the team members during the interview.

“Oh well,” said Trent.

“Oh well,” echoed Gardenour.