Buddies and fun team up for an enjoyable basketball game

Buddies and fun team up for an enjoyable basketball game

Basketball players hailed from different schools in the Bridgewater-Raritan Regional School District when a game was played on March 15.

 The schools involved in this showdown were students from the Bridgewater-Raritan Middle School and the Eisenhower Intermediate School.

The students and their teachers–and a bunch of spectators–may have come from different buildings and neighborhoods but for this one evening they not only joined forces in the Middle School gymnasium but they all shared one common thread.

The Buddies all had fun.

The Middle School and Eisenhower Buddy Basketball Programs merged on the evening of March 15 to play their games to the delight of family, staff and friends who enjoyed the exhibition in the Middle School gym.

This program, which is offered by other schools throughout the Bridgewater-Raritan Regional School District, places students  in language and learning disability classrooms with various fellow students who are referred to as peers. 

The students form into teams that are coached by school staff members as well as older student volunteers. And they gain instruction in the sport of basketball while also absorbing valuable lessons in working as a team and sportsmanship. This opportunity also provides students with the opportunity to make new friends.

“And have tons of fun,” said Elizabeth Barboni, a teacher from Eisenhower who directs the school's Buddy Basketball Program.

Her students as well as players from the classrooms of fellow Eisenhower teachers Jenna Figliano and Mitchell Sommer and the school’s peers comprised their team.

The Middle School team contained students in the classrooms of Cheryl Sunshine-Figliano and Jessica Staudt as well as peers.

The terrific work delivered by so many volunteers enabled this game to go off as simple as a layup.

“It is with the help of such great teacher and parent volunteers from both schools that we are able to run our Basket Buddies Program every year,” Ms. Barboni claimed. “We are so proud to have gotten the chance to work with and coach each and every one of our students and peers and could have not done it without them.”