Switching schools can be a daunting experience for students who are wary of what to expect in different environments.
Fortunately for Dom Meloni, his move to Baldwin High School worked out especially well.
“Before he attended this school, he was very quiet, and they brought him out of his shell,” his father, Chris McCoy, said about Dom’s new classmates. “We couldn’t be more grateful for everything they’ve done for him.”
Dom is a participant in Baldwin’s two Special Olympics Unified Sports teams, bocce and track and field. The program partners students with and without intellectual disabilities to help promote inclusion, friendship and understanding.
“The school has just done wonders for him with all these sports, because we didn’t even know these sports existed,” McCoy said. “The partners made him so comfortable. He hangs out with them outside of school a lot. They’ve been great with him.”
As a bonus, both the unified teams excelled in 2025, with the bocce players advancing to the Special Olympics Pennsylvania Regional Championships and the track athletes winning their section title in the squad’s first year of existence.
Dom was among the track team members to display a championship banner to a packed gymnasium during a March 27 event celebrating Baldwin’s selection as one of just five schools in Pennsylvania to receive recognition from the Special Olympics national headquarters as a National Banner Unified Champion School.
And Baldwin is the state’s only school to be named to the 2025 ESPN Honor Roll, which recognizes the top Special Olympics Unified Champion Schools for exceptional inclusion efforts.
“You are showing Pennsylvania and the rest of the country what’s possible,” Nate Garland, Special Olympics PA interim CEO and president, said at the celebration. “And when you get it right in school, you don’t just change schools. You change communities.”
Baldwin’s connection with Special Olympics extends back nearly half a century, with the school hosting the Allegheny County Summer Games/Spring Invitational annually since 1977.
In 2015, Baldwin launched one of the region’s first unified bocce teams. One of the members was Victoria Sgattoni, now a J.E. Harrison Middle School teacher, bocce coach and the school’s initial track and field head coach.
“This place is where I found my passion,” she said at the March 27 event. “Seeing the impact of acceptance and opportunity through these programs here at Baldwin made me pursue a career in special education and now coaching. I knew I wanted to be a part of something bigger, and Baldwin helped me do that.”
Leading the efforts toward inclusion are Eric Jankoski, Baldwin-Whitehall School District special education transition coordinator, and Marissa Gallagher, district director of student services.
“It’s not just about students with or without disabilities. It’s about creating a greater sense of community for everyone,” Gallagher said. “By creating an inclusive environment, you’re willing to be friends with everyone and get to know someone who may be different from you.”
Participation in Baldwin’s unified sports extends beyond the student body. McCoy, for example, serves as a bocce referee and assists with track and field.
“When they approached me about refereeing sports, I didn’t think twice about it. Even after he’s officially done with school,” McCoy said about his son, “I’m still going to help with it.”
Dom is scheduled to graduate next year, and he plans to stay connected with the program, as well.
“I’m going to be volunteering after this, like my dad does.”