When the Bow Middle School Unified soccer team posed for a photo before its first-ever game last week, the players didn’t smile by saying ‘Cheese!’ Instead, they all beamed while shouting, ‘We love Brooke!’
That would be Brooke Hull, who created the team as her senior project at Bow High School. She got permission from administrators and parents, recruited players, ran practices, designed uniforms and capped it all off with last Friday’s game against Bow Middle staff members, who never stood a chance. The Unified team rolled to a 29-3 win that was loaded with smiles and celebrations, except when the staff managed to score.
“For the students to have a sport they can play as a group and as a team, it was huge, because most of them have not played any organized sports, so this was a really tremendous opportunity that Brooke brought to our level,” said Kathy Topolosky, a Bow Middle School paraprofessional who works in the special education department and helped Hull with the project.
“At the end Brooke was asking me if I would be willing to do it with her again next year, even though she’s going to graduate. She was saying she would love to continue Unified sports in the middle school so these kids have an opportunity she didn’t have in middle school.”
Hull has learning disabilities. She attends regular classes at Bow High, although some are modified, and she’s participated in Unified soccer and basketball, as well as music and gym, during her four years of high school.
Nearly all Bow High special education students participate in the senior seminar course and complete a senior project, but most of them, “do not do a project of this scale that has impacted so many,” said Angella Mullins, a Bow High School English teacher who also teaches the senior seminar course.
“Brooke is an amazing young lady. Unified sports helped her to be a part of a team and shaped her experience here,” Mullins said. “She felt passionately about providing that opportunity for our middle school students, as well.”
Hull knows how important sports can be for kids that age – she was in middle school when she joined the Concord Golden Eagles Special Olympics team. That experience boosted her confidence, paved the way for her playing Unified sports in high school and eventually led to her senior project.
“I loved it. We’d do golfing and skiing and so many different activities,” Hull said of the Golden Eagles. “And I continued with sports all these years and then I just thought it would be a good opportunity to teach kids like myself that have special needs or disabilities that they can do a sport, that they can do anything.”
Hull’s self-confidence took another leap with her senior project. When the practices started in late March, she would defer to Topolosky when it came to corralling their group of excited middle schoolers and organizing them enough to do soccer drills.
“She was very shy at the beginning of the project,” said Debbie Hull, Brooke’s mother. “Just for her to pull down her mask and say, ‘Okay guys, time for a water break,’ was a lot for her.”
Still, Brooke loved every minute of it. So did her players, who wanted all the minutes they could get.
“At one of the first practices one of the kids said, ‘I wish we could stay here until 7 o’clock at night!’ And I was like, ‘I wish we could, too!’ I’m just happy they enjoy it,” Brooke said.
By the end of the project, Brooke was in total control. She looked and acted like a coach during the game, not a nervous teenager. She carried a stack of rosters and notes as she paced the sideline and made sure everyone got equal playing time. When the 29-3 drubbing was done, she handed out awards to each player with personalized notes on their unique skills and contributions to the team.
“For her to be giving out those awards in front of all those people was huge,” her mother said. “To see her come out of her shell like she did was just really great.”
Topolosky saw the same thing.
“She definitely became more independent. She’d take charge of the practices and the skills drills,” Topolsky said. “Her leadership really progressed.”
Brooke had two friends take pictures at all the practices and the final game, and she’ll use those photos to create a slideshow as a final presentation for her project. She will get a grade, but Brooke said, “whatever grade they give me I’ll be fine with because I had a great time.”
The Bow Middle School Unified players and parents have already been clamoring to keep the team going, and expand it, next school year. But no matter what happens with the program, Hull plans to keep working with people with disabilities.
“Next year I’ll be going to college, taking some type of night class at NHTI,” Hull said. “I want to do something with people with special needs. I’m not exactly sure what, but something with special needs people or the elderly. I just love doing that. I like seeing the smiles on their faces.”