As a result of one of the Southgate Police Department’s many Christmas programs held this past year, the police, schools and community were presented with a very special gift that wasn’t opened until February.

“We were passing out gifts at Davidson Middle School to multiple classes when we had the good fortune to meet McKenna Tanguay,” said Southgate Detective Sergeant Michael Murphy. “McKenna runs the Unified Basketball team for Southgate and she asked us if we would like to play a game against her talented student athletes. We were excited and grateful to be included.”

Police officer Monica Stein, whose daughter participates with the Woodhaven program, had wanted Southgate PD to do something like this for a couple of years. Stein and Tanguay worked together to set up the game between the Unified team and first responders on February 7 at Anderson High School.

“The police department and my students in my classroom have a very close relationship,” Tanguay said. “It’s very important to me to have the community involved and see the impact these students have on other people every day.”

The Unified Team has nine players on the roster and range from sixth grade to 12th grade.

“It was great,” Murphy said. “There was a great turnout – very notably a large student section rooting on the Unified Team.”

Tanguay called the experience “amazing.”

“To see members of the community come out to cheer them on and support them was a feeling unlike any of them or their families have ever experienced,” she said. “One of my favorite parts was watching high school students form a cheer tunnel for our players to run out of when their name was announced over the loudspeaker.”

Tanguay is in her third year as a special education teacher in Southgate. She knows how important athletics can be to a high school student, having played softball at Trenton High School and later at the University of Detroit Mercy.

“I noticed there was not a lot of opportunity for students with special needs to be involved in athletics here in Southgate, so with the help of our special education director, Erica Shovein, we were able to start Unified Sports this year,” she said. “A lot of the Downriver communities already had Unified Sports established in their programs, so they were excited to welcome Southgate for basketball this year.”

Southgate is hoping to bring other Unified Sports to the school, including bowling in the fall and track in the spring. Their basketball season began in December and concluded after the first responder game in February.

Tanguay was one of the coaches, along with Michelle Draper, a special education teacher at Davidson.

“Our Anderson High School girls basketball JV team was a huge help with our season as well,” she said. “With Unified Sports there are three Unified players and two peers on the court. The peers assist the players with dribbling, rebounding and encouragement while also building friendships with the players.”

Tanguay said the experience working with these student-athletes has been extremely rewarding.

“I get the opportunity to teach these athletes in the classroom every day, so it was very special to see them out of their element and learn how to play a sport against other athletes at their level,” she said. “They get to see staff members, peers or other friends they have made, and those friendships make them feel included – even when they are just walking down the hallway at school.”

And in case you were wondering, the Unified team “whooped our butts by about 20,” Murphy said.