Siblings to represent Charlotte FC Unified team in Special Olympics All-Star Game
On May 17, there was a coronation in the Queen City.
Technically, every time Charlotte FC plays there’s a coronation — the team crowns and honors an individual before every home match.
This particular time, Zach Burkholder climbed the stairs toward the black-and-white throne, deep into the supporter section at Bank of America Stadium.
Awaiting him was his sister, Emily Burkholder, poised to place the crown on top of his head.
“That was probably one of the most nerve-racking things I’ve done,” Zach said.
But the nerves never showed, as he cheered and waved when he took his rightful place on the throne.
The Burkholders, from Concord, are members of Charlotte FC’s Unified team — a Major League Soccer and Special Olympics-sponsored program that pairs able-bodied individuals with intellectually disabled individuals to compete with other Unified teams nationwide.
There is also some terminology that comes with learning about Unified programs. Players without disabilities are called “partners,” while players with disabilities are called “athletes.” The partner’s priority is to “create highlight moments for the athlete,” Charlotte FC Unified head coach Kevin Sims said, though that doesn’t necessarily prevent them from taking a chance at goal once in a while.
“There might be a partner who has a very legitimate chance to shoot the ball 15 yards out from goal, but they’ll try to make the extra pass to see if they can put it onto the foot of an athlete in front of the goal to make that difference happen,” Sims said.
MLS hosts a Special Olympics Unified Sports All-Star Soccer Game during the league’s All-Star Week festivities. On Wednesday, outside of Washington, D.C., the Burkholders will represent Charlotte FC and the East among other Unified pairs from across North America, an honor bestowed upon them by Sims and the rest of the team’s coaching staff.
Zach Burkholder, 25, is autistic, and he also lives with learning disabilities and mental health disorders. He’s been involved with soccer since he was a child, playing competitively before aging out of his league as he got older and transitioned into pick-up soccer.
His uncle, a direct support professional who works with special needs children, had heard of the Unified team’s opening tryouts last April. He told Zach Burkholder, who promptly decided to try out.
It was competitive, he said, but he made the team in the end.
Emily Burkholder, 24, elected to join the team in its second year. Just like her brother, she’s played soccer since she was little, eventually captaining the Central Cabarrus High School varsity soccer team.
After watching Zach Burkholder play for a year, she made the decision to rejoin the sport she grew up with, too.
“I was like this is really cool, this looks really fun, I would like to be a part of it,” she said. “I didn’t realize how much I missed playing until I started playing again.”
Though the siblings joined in different years, they both enjoyed a similar onboarding experience: Charlotte FC Unified’s signing day.
This year, on April 18, the team hosted its second signing day to welcome its new and returning players for the 2023 season. The event is meant to feel like a real, professional signing day, complete with attendance of first and second-team players as well as some fans.
“It’s very official,” Emily Burkholder said. “It was a really cool experience, I just remember thinking it wasn’t real.”
The effort put into signing day is a testament to Charlotte FC’s generous sponsorship of the team. Along with team events, it covers the Unified team’s gear and any travel-related expenses.
One such trip happened in late May when the team traveled to Orlando to play Orlando City FC. The flight down was both of the Burkholders’ first time flying, not to mention the team took a trip to Disney World, free of charge.
In March, they also traveled to Atlanta and played in Mercedes Benz Stadium — an experience Emily Burkholder called “surreal.”
“I’m really glad to see that joy from playing soccer again, because they both really enjoy it and I think it filled a void in both of their lives,” said Zach and Emily Burkholder’s mom, Tina Burkholder. “It’s a great opportunity.”
Unified team games are just as hard-fought as any other soccer game. But with programs across the league still in development, it’s not uncommon to see a game played with fewer than 11 players per side, as is the typical number of players per team.
“It’s hard. Competitive too because you have to have a dynamic between the partners and players,” Zach Burkholder said. “We have each other’s back.”
This year was more competitive compared to last, he added, because Charlotte’s Unified program has grown along with other Unified programs.
Every athlete who tried out made the team last season, and though some cuts were made, there wasn’t a huge turnout on the partner’s side either. In November when tryouts for the 2023 season occurred, 15 athletes tried out and nine made the roster. According to Sims, 25 to 30 partners showed up as well.
“Our team now is kind of at the full functioning level,” said Charlotte FC director of community engagement Dustin Swinehart. “I think we kind of are looked at as a very respected Unified program.”
In his role, Swinehart works closely with the Unified team. He’s been inspired by the positive influence the program has made on its players, coaches and the club as a whole.
Because of this, Swinehart is spearheading an effort to build Unified programs across the Carolinas, with plans to start teams in Greenville, Columbia, Winston-Salem and Raleigh.
“We had a real affinity towards the impact of the program. I think for Charlotte FC, our vision is to be an integral part of the Carolinas overall, not just Charlotte,” he said. “So this felt like a great opportunity to take a program that we saw be wildly successful overall and extend it and try to get it out to more people.”
Eventually, Swinehart hopes all the clubs will come together in Charlotte once a year and play in a Unified tournament to crown a champion of the two states.
In its own city, the Unified team has been involved with Charlotte FC’s Pitches For Progress — the team’s commitment to install mini soccer fields in at-risk communities throughout Charlotte and the Carolinas.
The club hosts small festivals to celebrate the opening of these fields by playing a jamboree on the pitch between multiple community teams. The Unified team has participated twice, acting as representatives for the club while giving back to the Charlotte community.
“I think the goodwill inside of the Unified program is off the charts,” Swinehart said. “They think it’s great to be representing Charlotte FC, but they also understand there’s an opportunity to give back as well with time, and the Unified team has built a little bit of its own visible platform.”
Though it’s shown up at events like these jamborees and has a small platform to build its image on, the Burkholders believe the Charlotte community isn’t really aware of the Unified team and what it represents.
The solution?
“Just more advertisement,” Zach Burkholder said. The more people who know about the Unified team, the more people it can touch with its message.
“I wish people knew that it’s really about bringing all types of people together to have fun experiences,” Emily Burkholder said. “So all people, whether you have mental disabilities or not, we’re all the same when we’re on the field and off the field.”
Aside from bringing people of different abilities, backgrounds, ages and ethnicities together, the Unified team creates a competitive outlet for individuals who might not have had the opportunity to play on a serious team before.
While competitive, though, the Unified team is also built on having fun, which shows in their practices. Every training session, the team holds designated celebration time where they recognize the accomplishments, birthdays, graduations and more of players, coaches and families involved with the program.
“I’ve always felt that if you’re not having fun, you’re not able to maximize your capabilities,” Sims said. “I think players that take competition on as a burden and a set of expectations to which they must produce sometimes takes the joy out of it and also probably prevents them from being their best.”
For Zach and Emily Burkholder, there were nerves and anxieties about joining the team at first, as there almost always is when trying something out for the first time, but both of them have made friends, lasting relationships and memories since.
From their first plane ride to their second, which has taken them up to Washington for MLS All-Star Week festivities, the opportunities presented to the Burkholders through the Unified team have been life-changing, just as they’ve been for everyone involved.
“Everyone on the team has had great experiences, from the coaches to the partners to the athletes to the parents,” Emily Burkholder said. “Everyone’s life has been improved by this.”
This story was originally published July 19, 2023 at 6:30 AM.
