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Cole Poorman is a senior at Bellwood who is making the most of his senior year. For the past few years, Cole has been a part of the unified bocce team, but this year, Cole is also on the track team. 

A few years ago, Mr. Lovrich was at the state track meet and through the Special Olympics, there was also a unified track meet. Mr. Lovrich asked Cole’s mom Brenda how she would feel about Cole running track. The two of them made it a goal for Cole’s senior year. 

“I think it is a pretty special thing for Cole. Two of the best things are seeing Cole excited about it and seeing the excitement for the kids who are also working with Cole. It is amazing because true inclusion is all students together,” Mr. Lovrich explained. 

Cole comes to track practice once a week to work with Mr. Lovrich and a few students. Cole runs the 100 meter dash at every home meet and he absolutely loves it. 

Danny Weeden is a sophomore that practices and runs with Cole for meets. 

“For me personally, working with Cole means a lot. The point is to include Cole and to make him feel like a part of the team and being able to do that for him makes me feel good. I also think it makes Cole feel a lot better, not only because he is working with other people, but also because he is working really hard and he has really progressed throughout the season,” Danny explained. 

Cole has already competed in two home track meets this season. During the meets, the announcer says that Cole is about to run and everyone, even the other teams at the meet, are standing along the side of the track to cheer Cole on. 

April Cramer is one of Cole’s teachers and works with him daily and she also goes to all of Cole’s track meets to help get him ready and cheer him on. 

“I am so proud of him and I love seeing how happy it makes him to run and seeing the people cheering for him,” April explained. 

He has two track meets left, one of which being today and the inclusion club is encouraging students to come out, make a student section and watch Cole. 

“One of the suggestions from Special Olympics for bocce is to have a student section and since we couldn’t have bocce this year, we wanted to support Cole the same way in his other sport,” Mrs. McNaul, the advisor of the inclusion club, explained. 

Cole has been working very hard all season and everyone is encouraged to go to the track meet today to watch Cole run!