LANSING, Mich (WLNS) – Waverly High School is about to be nationally recognized this week when ESPN and the Special Olympics hold a special assembly at 1:45 p.m. on Friday to honor Waverly as a Top-5 Banner School out of 8,000 schools across the country.

The Warriors are being honored for their inclusion, advocacy, and respect for its athletes of all abilities. The school-wide assembly will include speeches and testimonials from staff and students and big names will be attending the event: Michigan Lt. Governor, Garlin Gilchrist, ESPN NFL Nation Reporter, Eric Woodyard, and Special Olympics Michigan President and CEO, Tim Hileman.

There’s going to be a 10-minute basketball game between Waverly and Haslett’s Unified teams and one of Waverly’s hoopers, Landon Harris, is ready to hit some big buckets.

“It’s gonna be fun and awesome,” said Harris.

Waverly’s Unified Advisor, Natalie Queen, shared with us what she wants people to know about how the Unified program has impacted the Warriors community.

“You know I just want people to like the real natural relationship that has been built through Unified,” said Queen. “It’s so fun it’s amazing our students are wonderful and they just give it their all and they really do make a difference here.”

To be recognized as an ESPN Top-5 National Banner School, Waverly has met the national standard of excellence in the areas of inclusion, advocacy, and respect.

So we asked Harris what he thinks of the big event coming to his school this week.

“I think that it’s gonna be fun stuff, see the whole school watch me play basketball and stuff so I’ll think about that,” said Harris.

“The culture at Waverly High School is amazing especially when it comes to dealing with people’s abilities the student really do look out for each other they take them under their wing and they treat them with respect they don’t treat them any different than they wood their other friends,” said Queen.

As for Antonio Muzillo, a student who plays on the Waverly varsity basketball team, he couldn’t be prouder of how his school incorporates athletes of all abilities.

“It’s great it shows that we have a great culture here shows that we have a great support system and a great just…just school in general where people can come together you know we can have fun with them we can do a lot of stuff with them,” said Muzillo.

Here’s a copy of the press release: