A Night of Champions, Culture, and Community: Inside Westcliff Athletics’ Blue & Gold Gala
The students at Edison High School in Huntington Beach had been wearing their yellow Westcliff University Warriors shirts long before April 23 arrived. According to Edison’s Special Programs Administrator Joe Loomis, the questions start almost daily once spring rolls around: “When is it happening?” On Thursday, it finally did. Westcliff University hosted its fourth annual, and fifth overall, Inclusive Sports Day in partnership with the Inclusive Sports Foundation, welcoming students with disabilities from Edison High School, Ocean View High School and Westminster High School to a full morning of sports, connection and community.
Almost 400 students, athletes and volunteers came together on the Edison High School campus, moving through sport-specific stations covering soccer, baseball, volleyball, softball, surfing, cornhole and carnival games. Participants moved through the grounds at their own pace in a carnival-style format, giving everyone the freedom to engage however felt right.
The event has grown every year since its inception and it did not happen by accident. Inclusive Sports Day is a direct reflection of Westcliff’s core values of social responsibility and community engagement – a commitment that runs through everything the institution does, from the classroom to the field. Dr. Anthony Lee, Westcliff president and CEO, said events like this one are what the university’s mission looks like in practice.
“This is one of my favorite days of the year. To see so many people here, to be able to make an impact, it means a lot. We are preparing our students for life after school and after graduation. Part of that is professional development, but a lot of it is personal development too, making sure they can go out into the community and be great people,” Dr. Lee said. “Community is one of the biggest pillars for us and this event has been getting bigger and bigger every year.”
That commitment was visible Thursday, not just in the scale of the event, but in the details: the athletes who showed up early, the students who already knew some of the Westcliff players by name and the relationships that picked up right where they left off from a year ago.
Walking in Like Champions
As has become a tradition, students with disabilities were welcomed through a tunnel entrance, a guard-of-honor style walkway lined with cheering Westcliff athletes who greeted each participant as they arrived. The energy it generates carries through the rest of the morning and this year was no different. It sets an expectation for the day: that everyone on that field belongs there and everyone is worth celebrating.
Matt Lance, founder and CEO of the Inclusive Sports Foundation, has watched this partnership develop since its first year and has seen how Westcliff approaches it differently from other universities his organization works with nationwide. He was candid about where Westcliff stands in that comparison.
“Westcliff does it better than anyone that we work with. The way Westcliff seems like it comes to a screeching halt just to come here and work with our kids is unlike anyone else,” Lance said. “The support they give, even the financial support to help us run this, we are a nonprofit and everything we get is based on donations. So the more support we can get from universities and communities, it just helps us continue to grow and complete our mission.”
Lance started the Inclusive Sports Foundation after being assigned to teach an adaptive PE class at Corona Centennial High School with no prior training in working with students with disabilities. He connected those students with athletes on campus, saw what it produced and eventually built it into a nonprofit that now partners with universities across the country. Westcliff has become the program he holds up as the gold standard when bringing new institutions into the fold, a distinction that speaks to how seriously the university has taken this commitment year over year.
The Station Everyone Was Talking About
Of all the stations on the field, the dance party drew the biggest crowd and held it the longest. What started as an open stretch of grass with music quickly became the heartbeat of the entire morning.
Students and athletes moved together, yellow shirts mixed with navy Warriors gear, with no score to keep and no outcome to chase. At one point, a dance train wound its way across the field, pulling in anyone close enough to grab on. Athletes lifted students onto their shoulders, hyping them up in front of the crowd. The cha-cha became a crowd favorite, with students and Westcliff players falling into the rhythm side by side. Nobody was watching from the sideline.
Nathan Chan, an Edison High School student who participated in the event, captured the feeling with the kind of honesty that is hard to script.
“Dancing and singing were my favorite parts,” Chan said. “It’s a nice sunny day and I played some football too and I enjoyed it. Meeting the Westcliff team out here is cool.”
Chan was not alone in that feeling. Students kept drifting back toward the music throughout the morning, pulled away from other stations and back to the same patch of grass where the day felt loudest. By mid-morning the dance party had become less of a station and more of a gathering point, the kind of place that is hard to walk away from once you have been in the middle of it.
Game On, Warriors
The dance party may have been the loudest corner of the field, but every station had its own version of that same energy.
Westcliff fielded athletes from every program on campus and each team brought something different to the morning. The surf station, run by Head Coach Lucas Taub, Assistant Coach Robbie Crist, and members of Westcliff’s nationally ranked surf team, drew consistent attention throughout the day. Using a large tarp set up to simulate riding through a wave barrel, the activity gave every participant a version of the surfing experience, regardless of mobility. One student in a wheelchair rolled through the tunnel with his arms raised, grinning the entire way through. Taub reflected on what days like this give back to the athletes who show up for them.
“Just seeing the smiles on all the kids’ faces, seeing them glow up, it brings us joy as well,” Taub said. “It’s just as rewarding for us as it is for them. That happiness is the main thing.”
Jerred Cook, Westcliff head coach for men’s basketball, said the event carries a weight for his program that goes beyond a single morning of volunteering.
“It’s like a Super Bowl for us and for the kids. It’s a celebration,” Cook said. “We look at it as a chance to bring everyone back down to earth for a bit. There’s unity within the athletes and I think they start to really realize the amazing opportunities they have in front of them. I’m glad Westcliff takes ownership of this and makes it happen.”
Why Days Like This Matter
Cesar Rivas-Sandoval, Westcliff’s director of athletics, was attending Inclusive Sports Day for the first time this year.
He spoke about what the event offers athletes at a moment when college sports has drifted toward priorities that can crowd out the original reasons people play and he was candid about what he saw on the field Thursday.
“College athletics has taken a weird turn recently, with so much of it being about money and claiming fame. I think we forget sometimes why we play a sport,” Rivas-Sandoval said. “We played in the backyard, streetball, kicked a soccer ball around, threw the football around. The end zone was a car or a street lamp. Being here and getting back to the fundamentals of why we played sports, which was partnership, community and smiles, this is it. Giving back to the community you reside in is really important. I think it’s one of the foundations of who we are.”
Westcliff University extends its gratitude to the Inclusive Sports Foundation, Edison High School and the participating district schools and to every student-athlete, volunteer and participant who made the fifth Inclusive Sports Day what it was. The students in yellow shirts will be back next year. They’re already counting down.
Learn more about Westcliff University’s commitment to social responsibility at westcliff.edu/about-westcliff/social-responsibility
