Two Brownsville students named to statewide Special Olympics Texas committee

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Two students from Veterans Memorial Early College High School signed agreements Monday to represent the Rio Grande Valley on a statewide Special Olympics Texas committee tasked with advancing inclusive initiatives statewide.

Pedro Vasquez and Ezekiel Zarate, who are a unified pair in UIL Interscholastic Sports, signed the agreements during a ceremony at Veterans Memorial. Afterward, they took photos with the Chargers football team, cheerleading squad and others.

The Brownsville Independent School District embraced Texas’ adaptive athletics law in 2021 after Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 776 into law.

Former state Sen. Eddie Lucio championed the law, along with Sergio Zarate, Ezekiel and his sister Zariah’s father. SB 776 is now popularly referred to as Zariah’s Law. Ezekiel is a senior and Zariah is in likely her final year at VMECHS.

At the time it became law, Lucio said he was proud that the push for SB 776, the nation’s first adaptive athletics law, started in Brownsville.

He said participants in UIL sports like football, basketball, volleyball, baseball and track and field engage in competition year-round, while competition in events for students with disabilities, such as Special Olympics, typically take place only twice a year, making it difficult to engage in long-term coaching and skill building.

BISD’s interscholastic sports league began play in 2022, with competition in basketball and track and field. Non-disabled students are paired with special needs athletes.

“There’s no holding back. It’s a regular basketball game. They’re partnered, three students with an intellectual disability with two students who do not,” Sandra Powers, BISD assistant athletic director and director of Unified Interscholastic Sports, said of the basketball league when competition began.

Under the law schools can become Special Olympics Texas Unified Champion Schools.

Veterans Memorial became one. Zarate, a member of the football team, and Vasquez compete as a unified pair in the basketball league in the winter and track and field in the spring.

The two will now represent the Valley on the South Texas Regional Youth Leadership Committee. Meetings are to be held virtually between now and February, when Special Olympics Texas will hold a youth summit during the winter state games at BK Lakeway outside Austin.

“No idea is too big and we’re here to support them with any idea they bring to the table,” a representative of Special Olympics Texas said of the committee after the ceremony.

Sergio Zarate said the ceremony was a continuation of the movement started with passage of SB 776.

“We do this for a typical child. Why would we not for a special needs child,” he said of the work being done to provide athletic training and coaching for special needs students on a par with what is provided for regular students.

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