With the Thousand Oaks High School gym filled with crowds of students, the Lancers make their grand entrance to cheers bursting from the stands filled with their fans.
On Mar. 20, 2026, TOHS hosted Westlake High School for a Unified Sports basketball game during third period, where students from certain classes could leave and support their school.
Unified Sports, also known as the Special Olympics Unified Sports, brings together students with or without disabilities to compete in sports. It also brings attention to events that students wouldn’t naturally gravitate towards.
Before the game started, speeches were made by senior leaders of the Unified Program of TOHS, Tessa Whitman, Gabriel Chin, and Jorge Narvaez.
The leaders bounced off of one another, thanking the crowd for coming, and emphasizing the importance of having a community or a crowd supporting their other Lancers, especially with the significance of this award to our Special Olympic program.
After their motivating words, the Lancer Band had a short performance before the National Anthem was sung by TOHS Alumni, Katie Adams.There was also a cheer performance by the Lancer Sparkles team, a club run by the TOHS cheer team. They encourage everyone to perform cheers, dances, and bond with Lancers participating in the games, hyping up the club before the game starts.
Before the game officially started, there was one last speech made by ESPN Anchor of 33 years, Linda Cohn, discussing the global importance of celebrating Unified Sports.
With her were three Unified Sports global ambassadors; actor and model, Charles Melton, Vice Chair of the Special Olympics Founders Council, Christopher Schwarzenegger, and lifelong partner to Special Olympics, Molly Shriver.
The game started with the Unified athletes with their mentors, and every three minutes new players would switch in.
During the first period, senior Jorge Narvaez was one of the players who scored many points, which resulted in the crowd vibrantly cheering for the team.
“I liked watching the crowd get excited after any of the kids made a shot, it was just really heartwarming and sweet,” senior Jordan Winston said.
By attending the game, students were given a chance to support the members of the TOHS community that they may have never gotten the chance to before. The Unified Sports games is one of the opportunities given to the program to be included in the community, surrounded with people who support them, making this event an even more fundamental meaning in TOHS activities.
“I feel great in the Unified Sports Program, it’s so fun to be with my best friends and seeing them shine,” sophomore June Neale said. “I love seeing how happy they get when they do good and score.”
For mentors a part of the program, seeing the Lancers feeling supported first hand from groups of people they may have never met, emphasizes their reasons for why these events are such an important part to the TOHS atmosphere.
Dramatically, the first period ended with a tied score of 24-24 between Thousand Oaks and Westlake. The Lancer Dance team performed a halftime performance to Mamushi by Megan Thee Stallion, which came to a big speech made by our Thousand Oaks High School Principal, Eric Bergmann. The speech was about inclusion and its implementation at TOHS, with him revealing the official banner to show that our school is a National Unified Champion school, and a plaque coming soon. Melissa Martin, advisor of the Thousand Oaks Special Olympics program, then rewarded her senior Unified Lancers with certificates for their commitment and sportsmanship as an athlete a part of Unified Sports.
Finally, in the second period, sophomore Benjamin Lee scored multiple three-pointers, resulting in the entire crowd loudly cheering. With Lee making the Thousand Oaks High School winning point, we won with a final score of 31-30.
With enthusiasm running high, students made their way out of the gymnasium, with both teams high fiving and taking group photos.
