There are some new stars on the basketball court at Fluvanna County High School.  A few months ago, FCHS Special Ed teacher and basketball coach Nick Ward had an idea. “I thought it would be awesome for our special needs students to get involved in athletics,” he said. Working with Assistant Principal Jason Lee, Athletic Director Scott Morris, and Director of Special Education Katrina Lee, Ward hammered out the details to create a Special Ed basketball team at Fluvanna.

The result was a very special team composed of Special Ed students from the classes of Robert Peake, Amy McCauley and Ward. “It’s fun to be on the team,” said 8th grader Diana Feathers. “You have to have courage to play basketball.” On January 9th, many high school classes piled into the gym to watch history in the making as the team had their first game against Appomattox.

“We do keep score and students who would not be able to get a shot are also allowed to have a “comp shot,” said Ward. “ If the student makes that shot both teams receive one point.  The coaches from the teams let the officials–ours are Mr. Barlow and Mr. Lee–know how closely the game should be called for each individual student,” said Ward. While the Fluvanna team lost their first game 41-28, it was a great learning experience for everyone, and they have plenty of other games this season to show their talent.

The new basketball team is just one of many other extraordinary opportunities offered by the Fluvanna Special Education program .The high school also has an after-graduation program where the Special Ed students can stay until they turn 22 and work in Ward’s work study program. In the work study program, they attend Postsecondary Education Rehabilitation Transition, or PERT, at Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center for 10 days.  At PERT, the student gets to pick three job areas they would like to attempt.  From there the faculty at Woodrow evaluates whether students can work in a job field independently, whether they will need a job coach, or if it is something that are not able to do at that time.  Also while at PERT, the students get a life skills evaluation telling what life skills (i.e., cooking food, making beds, counting money, making grocery lists, shopping with a budget, etc.) they are able to accomplish.

Since Ward has been in charge of the program, he now has multiple students working at Best Western at Zions Crossroads, McDonald’s, Walmart Distribution, UVA Medical Center, and Harris Teeter. “Many of our students will work through a job coach on the job until they are able to work alone,” said Ward. “We work with the Division of Rehabilitation Services to make this happen.”

Ward is also working on having the Special Education students join the track team as well as the Special Olympics program. “It may take me a year or two to get that up and running but the stages have started already,” he said.  Anyone interested in helping out with these projects can contact Ward at [email protected].