Covering "special" sports

Got an e-mail from a reader today wondering why we haven't covered Unified Basketball.
For those who don't know, it's a varsity basketball league where three special needs kids team up with two normal kids. The normal kids can only score like 20 percent of the total points for the team. It's pretty cool and it's a whole lot of fun for everyone. They have games and they have a championship tournament at the end of the year, which is great.
However, I have no idea how to go about covering this. The reader asked why we don't cover it on a regular basis, like we would a baseball or softball team. The only answer I can come up with is I don't feel comfortable doing that because if we did, we can't ignore the obvious, like when team's get crushed and writing a story about how they got blown out and why that happened.
Is this the type of league where we should just do a feature a season and get it over with? Or do we give the parents what they want and cover them like they're a normal varsity team.

 

I'd do a feature on it to put it to bed. That way, all parties are relatively happy.

 

You say it's a varsity sport. Does that mean it is an official school sport? I don't know any state athletic associations that have sports like this included. I'm guessing it is either a club sport or not school endorsed at all. In that case it is a yearly feature and that's it. Basically, the JV rules apply. You cover one club or rec sport you have to cover them all type thing.

That and I doubt your readers care to read about every game.

 

The RIIL made it a varsity sport and there's fewer than 20 schools in the state (we have like 45 schools in RI) that have it as a sport.

 

1. Jimmy Buffett has two Ts in his last name. /pet peeve

2. Feature is the way to go on this.

3. The RIIL sanctions Renaissance Games!?! WTF is that?

 

Agree with #2, and as far as #3 goes, I'm not sure how many schools actually participate. I know when I was at one of the southern schools as a student in the early 2000s, they thought about adding it, but never went through with it.

 

You have no idea how inept the RIIL is. Seriously. We have four divisions for football with 44 teams. Need I say more?

 

Gotta agree. Definitely feature. Doesn't sound like a candidate for regular coverage yet, but maybe it'll encourage folks to call in?

 

Even if it is sanctioned, it doesn't mean you have to cover games. Do you run every Special Olympics event or every youth result?

The story would make a good feature, though.

 

But what are Renaissance Games? Is it like a Renaissance festival with sports?

 

Minnesota, for example, sanctions adaptive bowling, soccer, softball and floor hockey.