Glen Burnie wins first unified bocce title: ‘An incredible accomplishment’
Wait, the Glen Burnie athletes said. We already won?
“You exceeded everyone’s expectations,” Gophers coach Marissa Neumann said. “It’s an incredible accomplishment — either way, we got first or second place. They’re already winners.”
No one wearing Gophers red at Washington College on Wednesday — either the Glen Burnie students or the joint team members from Ruth Parker Eason School — expected to qualify for states. They’d never done it before. But they did. Then, no one expected them to move past an experienced Crofton team, a program with three gold medals, but they did.
Something about competing against champions sparked every one of the Gophers to “lock in.”
Admittedly, Abigale Hanson never once planned to get this far. She devoted four years to varsity field hockey without so much as a glimmer of state trophies in her mind. But when she chose to play unified bowling in the winter, that changed. She met Erin Richards and Elizabeth Cook, two Ruth Parker Eason athletes. There, they took bronze. But Neumann kept assuring them there was gold on the horizon, if they believed.
In just two years, Glen Burnie’s participation swelled to one of the largest in Maryland high schools, especially with its school partnership. On Wednesday, the Gophers who weren’t competing packed the stands, complete with hand clappers, pom-poms and megaphones, belting “Gopher Nation” like a magical manifesting mantra. The energy drew Old Mill and South River, Neumann said, offering support as if the competitors wore blue, not bright red.
“It was a really wonderful, inclusive and exciting beginning of the match,” the Gophers coach said.
As light as the atmosphere remained, the opponent, Pocomoke, quickly mixed fun with frenzy. It was too close; Hanson turned to her coach for score updates.
Up by a few points, Neumann replied. Then, Glen Burnie kept scoring more.
“I just knew that even though it wasn’t about winning it would mean so much if we did win,” Hanson said. “I knew we needed to focus and not be overwhelmed by the excitement or nerves.”
The moment Glen Burnie clinched its title, Hanson was gripped by shock. She turned to look at her coach, who was crying. The Ruth Parker Eason coaches? The same.
The team rushed up around her, and Richards surprised her most of all.
“She gave me a hug. She doesn’t usually let anybody touch her at all, but she gave me a real hug,” Hanson said. “It just meant a lot. I got to know them and the coaches and it was so — it felt surreal.”
The school was empty when bocce returned. It was evening, Hanson didn’t expect anything less. But then, she opened Instagram.
Boys lacrosse, girls lacrosse, baseball, tennis and even football in their spring workouts made videos congratulating bocce’s accomplishment.
This is just the beginning, a tennis player said. We’re going to get so many more.
Hanson thought of girls basketball’s historic state title a few years ago, cheerleading’s multiple rings in the years since. Celebrations for those teams were expected in Hanson’s minds. But there the videos were.
“That made me so happy. I honestly didn’t think, us being a unified sport, people really cared about it as much. It made me smile.”
Neumann became the Glen Burnie unified coach two years ago with the intention of growing the sport, not only in size but in impact in her school community. She knows what this title means.
“I think it takes a big step forward,” she said, “and just being able to include Ruth Parker Eason, showing every ability level is capable of competing and being successful, but also the pure joy from the athletes themselves to our partners, to our coaches, to our families — there wasn’t a dry eye there yesterday.
“Everything that unified is about — that team right there is the definition.”
Severna Park, Broadneck and Crofton all also claimed bocce titles in divisions based on ability Wednesday.
