Celebrates 2nd year, athletes also earn recognitions

About 10 people — a mixture of Mingus Union High School special education students, general education students and teachers — crowded around special education student Johnny Castro in the cafeteria to congratulate him on being named Athlete of the Year on May 21.

Last year, the school hosted its inaugural unified season, which included special education students, aka Exceptional Student Services at MUHS, along with general education students. There were three teams, which played in an intramural-format volleyball season.

This year, the school upped its options to three unified sports: Volleyball, basketball and flag football.

The school also hosted its inaugural unified sports banquet on May 21.

“The Unified Volleyball season ran April to May 2026,” Superintendent Melody Herne, Ph.D., wrote in a recent email, “with the Unified Championship Game culminating in the 22 Turquoise Pearls beating the undefeated Pink Parrots for a dramatic end to a great season.”

Castro’s favorite sport was basketball, which they played in the winter season, a few weeks after the school’s regular basketball season.

He liked to get the ball into the hoop and pass it between his teammates.

“I would’ve been nervous, but at least I did it.” Castro said.

Castro was on the Violet Buccaneers team, which MUHS Athletic Director Yancey DeVore said remained more or less the same students throughout all sports.

“I didn’t realize this until after the volleyball season, and I started looking at our unified program throughout the year,” DeVore said. “Every one of our teams, the Turquoise Pearls, the Pink Parrots and the Violet Buccaneers, won a championship this year.”

The Violet Buccaneers won flag football, the Pink Parrots won basketball and the Turquoise Pearls won volleyball.

The students got together at the beginning of the year to vote on the team names.

“At first, I kind of [did] nothing,” Castro said. “So, my teacher, Miss Emmely [Zapata], told me we could play flag football.”

He had a lot of fun with that, and decided to continue the unified sports for the remainder of the school year.

Last year had much fewer students participating.

“We went from 11 kids at a high point to, I think, we had 19 or 20 [special education students] signed up for this year,” DeVore said. “So the program doubled in one year.”

But the returners still loved the extra options.

Nathan Luessen said he had fun with volleyball last year, but his favorite sport was flag football this year.

“I kept spinning, it just triggered everyone a bit,” he said.

His team, the Violet Buccaneers, adapted well, he said and won the flag football championship game in the fall.

Annie Walker, who was on the Turquoise Pearls, said it was really fun to spend time with her friends.

“Since some of them were on my team last year, it has been [nice] reconnecting with them,” she said.

In volleyball last year, she received an Athlete of the Month award, which she said made her excited to play it again with a lot of the same people.

Allie Sabol said she had a lot of fun on the Violet Buccaneers also because of the many friends she’s made. Her favorite sport was volleyball, because she had an extra year of practicing.

“I like being better at things,” she said.

Her true passion would be a unified softball team, she said, but she’s happy with what the school has now.

DeVore said he’s proud of the program’s growth this year, because when he started as athletics director nine years ago, it was his goal to begin a unified team.

“Last year, we had the right people at the right time,” he said.

His goal for the future is to have enough for a team to go and compete against other schools, too, instead of only in-house games.