Be The Good: Phillipsburg High School Goes ‘All In’ with a Basketball Finale for Inclusion Week

PHILLIPSBURG, NJ - Phillipsburg High School’s third annual Inclusion Week ended with a basketball game when Nigere King nailed a 3-point field goal at the buzzer to give Team Garnet a 41-38 victory over Team Grey in front of a gymnasium-filled student body on Friday afternoon.

Boy’s basketball coach Todd Sigafoos and girl’s coach Nicole Fulmer were the coaches for the game including many of their varsity players.

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“It’s Inclusion Week, so this is a great way to include everyone,” Fulmer said. “The boys and girls on the basketball teams love to get involved. It’s a real exciting way to end the week.”

“It’s always a fun week to get these kids together,” Sigafoos said. “Lets them mingle with the varsity players, and they always enjoy it, and our guys are awesome with it. All the kids have a really good time.”

This was the third Inclusion Week Phillipsburg High School held. Students with disabilities are matched with a peer buddy for a day.  Activities include Cheerleading, a Step Team, a Band, a Choir, and the Sign Language Club, and it ends with a unified basketball game. Watch the action below.

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Karen Stangl, who teaches English to students with disabilities, is the coordinator for Inclusion Week, and she couldn’t have been prouder of everyone involved for the way the week played out.

“The week went better than we could have expected,” Stangl said. “It took a lot of planning. We started planning back in October and really got deep into the planning in January. It’s been magical all week. We had over 400 student volunteers, mostly without disabilities, to be involved in some capacity. Either as a peer buddy or to do some of the field trips.

“So, we thought, how do you include 400 students? We came up with some additional events. We started off with the kickoff on Monday, and we had peer Buddy Day on Wednesday. Today was a big day. The band paraded the kids around the building before lunch like we do with the football team the day before Thanksgiving. We did a lot of things that highlighted the experience for the kids.”

Stangl said she was overwhelmed by the support she felt from the entire school, and it showed it was well worth it when she looked at the students with disabilities.

“It’s hard to put it in words,” Stangl said . “Seeing the smiles and the sparkle in their eyes. There are a lot of kids that are non-verbal. But they started communicating this week through their eyes.”

Another event was a musical theater performance on Thursday.

“That meant a lot to us because we wanted to get the kids on stage,” Stangl said. “We had some kids up there that were non-verbal but sang. We heard them sing for the first time. We had our drama club, which just came off of Matilda, and they put some acts together with some of our students with special needs, and they did two numbers up on the stage. It was beautiful. It was truly, truly beautiful.”

Inclusion Week is here to stay at Phillipsburg High School, and hats off to all involved for a job well done. A check for $1,000 was presented at halftime to the Special Olympics.

Read more about inclusion week at PHS

Inclusion Week 2024 Kicks Off at Phillipsburg High School

From the Red Carpet to the Big Stage: Inclusion Week Continues in Phillipsburg

Lights! Camera! Action!: Phillipsburg High School Hosts Red Carpet Event at During Inclusion Week

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