Scenes from Smithtown’s unified basketball debut as crowd turns out

Smithtown tipped off something special this week.

The Smithtown Central School District hosted its first-ever Unified Basketball game Tuesday night at Smithtown High School West, where more than 30 student-athletes faced off against Middle Country in a program designed to bring players of all abilities together.

The stands were packed with classmates, families and staff, creating a loud, supportive atmosphere throughout.

“This is my fourth year here in the district as athletic director, and when I interviewed for the position I said we need to have unified sports here full time,” said Jason Lambert, SCSD director of athletics. “We were fortunate enough to get Unified Bowling up, and now we have basketball. It’s as positive a sports environment as you’ll ever go to.”

Head coach Emily Fey, who also leads the district’s Unified Bowling team, said the moment has been a long time coming.

“We’ve been waiting such a long time for this,” Fey said. “We’re so happy and thankful to Smithtown. We have 32 players signed up and more are coming — the more the merrier for me.”

Take a look at some of the moments from a memorable first night below, courtesy of Smithtown schools: