Football Athletes At High School Strike Up Friendship With Classmates With Special Needs

Apr 22, 2021

A high school football team in Pennsylvania took an assignment given to them by their coach and turned it into an opportunity to become friends with a group of students with special needs in November 2017. The Emmaus High School football coach Harold Fairclough wanted to get involved with a Special Olympics event, involving a workshop with his team. He asked his team to put on a Special Olympics workshop for the special needs students in the school, which had a major impact on the players on the football team. 

"To watch them pick it up and struggle with some things, and we taught them and to watch them learn was great," student Blake Reed says in the video below. He adds, "Once we got over that initial hump, it was OK. It was fun; we can do this." This is a really great way to bridge the gap between students in a high school, where differences are not always celebrated. 

Fairclough decided to get his team even more involved with the cause by asking each player to have lunch with one student with special needs every Friday. The team happily obliged, making new friends quickly.

One senior football player, in particular, Dylan, befriended a girl named Olivia. The pair had a special bond, and it seemed like Olivia felt safe with Dylan. The 69 News team covered a story about the blossoming friendships between the students. Olivia expressed being nervous about the crew being there to film them, but Dylan was right by her side helping her calm down. 

The feeling seemed to be mutual. “Dylan is a great guy,” Olivia said. The pair had grown to be so close and such great friends that Dylan decided to expand his once-a-week mealtime with Olivia. Originally, the team’s coach had asked his team to sit with students with special needs during lunch once a week, but Dylan decided that he wanted to take that a step further. He turned a volunteer-based assignment into a real friendship with Olivia, spending more of his time with her and dedicating himself to learning more about how to assist students with special needs.

“I sit with her every day,” Dylan revealed. “I love Olivia. She has a special spot in my heart.”

Dylan, along with some of the other football players, expressed an interest in furthering their knowledge of special needs education. “I want to help with special education,” Dylan told 69 News. Another senior football player, Austen, chimed in about his thoughts on the team making new friends. “I always take away something and it amazes me every time,” he said. “It’s awesome.” While these players seemed to have bonded with their new friends quickly, this type of friendliness and acceptance isn’t always seen. 

“Some of those kids sit alone,” Dylan told 69 News. Unfortunately, bullying is something present in most schools. Thankfully, there are resources that can help bystanders learn how to step in and help students who are currently victims of bullying find somewhere safe to go or someone safe to talk to. Stop Bullying is an organization dedicated to helping to stop bullying when someone sees it happening.

The Stop Bullying organization has a plan for how to address bullying concerns and stop it in its tracks. According to Stop Bullying, “(P)arents, school staff, and other adults in the community can help kids prevent bullying by talking about it, building a safe school environment and creating a community-wide bullying prevention strategy.”

According to the National Bullying Prevention Center, one out of every five high school students has reported that they have been bullied, and unfortunately, bullied students have an increased risk of depression, anxiety, sleep difficulties, lower academic achievement and higher drop-out rate. This is certainly problematic, but studies have shown that school-based bullying prevention programs can decrease bullying by up to 25% after implementation. 

With the advice from their coach, the Emmaus High School football team created an opportunity to make new friends. The players quickly became friends with other students with special needs, expanding their time with them as their initial volunteer work came to an end. Some even expressed the desire to take this newfound passion to the next level by bringing it into their college studies and future careers.

Speaking about the experience Austen said, "I always take away something and it amazes me every time." It is heartening to see something that started off as a once-a-week program to help fellow classmates turned into a life-changing event for many of the football players. Teachers and coaches like Fairclough have shown that as long as they can carry the spark of inspiration, they can ignite a great change within their students. 

What did you think of this sweet story about new-forming friendships? Let us know, and be sure to pass this along to your friends and family members.