WATCH | Hot Springs captures unified state championship

Hot Springs unified basketball head coach Larry McDaniel and senior athlete Roy Byers stand with the state championship trophy Thursday at Trojan Arena. - Photo by Donald Cross of The Sentinel Record
Hot Springs unified basketball head coach Larry McDaniel and senior athlete Roy Byers stand with the state championship trophy Thursday at Trojan Arena. - Photo by Donald Cross of The Sentinel Record

The Hot Springs World Class High School unified basketball team won the unified state championship March 10 at Bank OZK Arena.

Unified sports joins student-athletes with and without intellectual disabilities on the same team.

Larry McDaniel is the head coach for the unified basketball team and has 11 players on his roster. Bobby Hampton and Ruby Carl back up McDaniel as his assistants.

"Unified basketball is where we take kids from our PACE classrooms and we infuse them with kids from the general population," McDaniel said. "They called them partners and the athletes are PACE. What they do is they combine them to get that mixture and blend of kids with special needs."

PACE students are children that have IEP, 504 plans, special limitations or disabilities.

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On his 11-person roster, McDaniel has one girl, Brianna Tidwell, who he recruited to join the team. Most unified rosters are coed.

"Three of the players on the roster are partners," McDaniel said. "We have three seniors in Aamir Andrews, Kivan Barker and Dawond Hardwell. The other eight roster members are comprised of kids from our PACE classrooms."

McDaniel said the team had good chemistry.

"Man, it is amazing," McDaniel said. "I am just so proud for the kids. They worked extremely hard. We came together in January. The kids, they really came together and formed a bond. ... The championship means a lot for our school district, our community and everybody that is a Trojan past, present and future."

The Trojans beat Ozark's unified basketball team 50-38. Hot Springs lost to Ozark earlier in the season.

"We beat Star City and Vilonia to go to the championship game," McDaniel said. "Then we avenged our loss to Ozark in the finals. Our goal was to lock down defensively. The first time we played them it was kind of a shootout. They beat us 50-45, so we were able to put the 50-burger on them."

The partners wear even numbers on their jerseys, and the athletes wear odd numbers for identification on the court.

"I feel like this is more fun than regular basketball," Andrews said. "You have more freedom to do what you want. I get to help the other kids play basketball just like the other team. I am going to remember the brother and sisterhood I have with these kids. I have a lot of bonds with the boys, girl and coaches. We are all just one big family."

McDaniel said the finals were very stressful.

"With just not knowing what to expect," McDaniel said. "The X's and O's, that's nothing. Once the ball is tipped the kids go play and I coach. The pregame stuff, waiting, anticipation, pictures and all of that stuff just feels unfamiliar. It all worked out."

Defensively in unified basketball, the rule is teams must run a man-to-man style of defense and match up talent to talent. This gives a level playing field for all partners and athletes.

"The kids executed the defense game plan to a T," McDaniel said. "They worked hard. That's the thing that I love about this team. I put it out there. I asked them ideas and they will get together as a team and work on strengths and weaknesses. They figure it out."

McDaniel said his team does not really run an offense.

"What we do is we just really kind of run, so motion sets," McDaniel said. "You do not want to make it too complicated. We try to put kids in position to make plays. We just kind of space the floor."

Junior partner Damarius Porter said the championship went well.

"I had eight points and eight rebounds," Porter said. "It felt pretty good to get revenge on Ozark. Last time they had us beat and this time we came back and won."

When playing in games, teams must use three athletes at once.

"Andrews is a phenomenal young man," McDaniel said. "He is very respectful just like all of my kids are. He is also on the football team. He is interested in welding. I just asked him on a whim and he was open to the idea. He came in and he was really our defensive quarterback. He got everybody in position on the defensive end of the court. In the championship game he was very instrumental on getting us set. When he was not on the floor, he was getting out kids in position by communicating."

Andrews had 14 rebounds and six points to will the Trojans to victory.

"The championship went very well," Andrews said. "It just feels great to win a state championship. I was big rebounding, just doing the dirty work. I am not really a scorer, but I play good defense."

McDaniel said senior athlete Roy Byers put in a lot of extra practice time and nailed a 3-point shot in the championship game. The coach said it helped his team tremendously.

Byers said making that 3-point shot was the highlight of his championship game, which were his only points. He said he was pretty good at defense, and he plays the short corners. He also joked that coach practiced them pretty hard.

"It felt pretty good; I mean the most accomplished thing was to get the win," Byers said. "We got to bring the championship home. My role on the team is to try to score us a little bit more points. I help out the team in any way I can. Basketball is not that hard if I put my mind to it."

McDaniel highlighted Hardwell as a great young man.

"I call him our juice guy," McDaniel said. "He is the point guard, and he gets us going. Once he gets going he just opens everything up for the offense and everyone else. He is our quarterback on the offensive side. He sets us up. Sometimes when old coach doesn't know what he is doing, he gets us in the right situations."

Hardwell had eight assists, seven rebounds and 25 points against Ozark, accounting for half of Hot Springs' scoring.

McDaniel said offensively Hardwell and defensively Andrews were the standout players against Ozark.

"Barker is another respectful young man," McDaniel said. "He is going to play football for Hendrix in the fall. Kivan is a high character young man and very smart academically. He is going to Hendrix, so of course he is smart. What I like about Kivan is he is even keel, humble. He never gets too high or too low. I think for the championship game, Kivan's presence showed up with the unfamiliar air of everything. And he really settled everyone down."

Byers is planning on attending college at Arkansas State for engineering.

"It felt pretty good to get revenge on Ozark," Byers said. "We only had the one loss, but we brought this baby back home."

The unified state championship is an Arkansas Activities Association sanctioned championship.

"I give Special Olympics of Arkansas a lot of credit," McDaniel said. "They got us sanctioned. When you see the trophy, this is an official AAA trophy. So, we are actually part of the Championship League. To me that brings a lot of light to the Special Olympics to let everyone know that these kids are talented."

McDaniel gave special thanks to Athletic Director Rodney Echols, Principal Kiley Simms, Principal Jason Quast, Principal Sarah Turner and the Director of Special Education Vashanti Williams.

"Miss Williams at the central office is always supportive of our kids," McDaniel said. "She does anything for us. I think this is like her second year, but I love Miss Williams because she really has a passion for it."

The athletes and the partners are being fitted for state championship rings.

"This was the school's first appearance in the championship," McDaniel said. "In our first appearance we got a trophy. It is awesome."

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