Hundreds of students crowded into the Brighton High School gymnasium Monday afternoon, cheering with contagious energy as the opposing basketball team scored shot after shot.
But this wasn't just any opposing basketball team. This was the Unified Special Olympics team, comprised of about 15 special education students who regularly attend Brighton High.
The scrimmage between the Brighton boys basketball team and the Unified Special Olympics team was held with support from Abby Cox's Show Up initiative, which aims to increase connectedness and empathy among Utahns, particularly children. Through private partnerships, Show Up is helping expand the Special Olympics program, which allows children of all abilities to participate on sports teams with their peers.
Cox was in attendance Monday, along with school board members, administrators, parents and others, including students at Brighton.
In addition to stands of roaring fans, the game included the high school's band, cheerleading squad and an announcer calling every play. There was also a halftime performance from the Salt Lake Stars, a Special Olympics dance group.
It was clear from the game's start which team the crowd favored most — every point scored by the Unified Special Olympics team elicited wild cheering, while the occasional basket made by the Brighton boys basketball team was met with disapproving boos.
The Unified Special Olympics team ultimately came out on top, 41-6.
Cox said after the game that, as a former special education teacher, the Special Olympics is dear to her heart.
The Show Up initiative is all about creating empathy, Utah's first lady continued.
"We're all about connecting this community. ... When you see somebody that is different from you, and you get proximate to them and you hear their story, that life is going to connect much better," she said. "There's nothing more joyful than what we just did."
Brighton High special education teacher Jared Denslow said the game happened because a student on the Special Olympics Inclusion Committee approached the principal with the idea.
The next thing they knew, Utah's first lady was involved and the event had "snowballed" into something amazing, he said.
Denslow said Brighton High students don't see disabilities when they interact with special education students.
"These kids see their friends as their friends, not (as) a disability or someone to feel sorry for," he said.