On Wednesday afternoon, the entire Saranac Lake High School student body was dismissed early and faculty, staff and students headed straight to the gymnasium to watch the school’s unified basketball team — a team dedicated to unifying students with and without learning disabilities — take on the Plattsburgh Hornets.

“Tyler, Tyler, Tyler,” echoed throughout the Saranac Lake High School gymnasium.

The reigning of cheers was for Tyler Hochwald, a Saranac Lake High School senior playing on the school’s unified basketball team.

“I’m pretty good buddies with a lot of the seniors where they were sitting. I went over there and said, ‘let’s get a little chant going, let’s make this a memorable day for him,'” Saranac Lake unified basketball coach Patrick Kissel said. “So we went over there and started it up.”

Saranac Lake’s Tyrell Collins lays up the ball during Wednesday’s home game against Plattsburgh. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

“M-V-P,” the crowd roared after Hochwald scored yet another basket in the fourth quarter.

“The whole student body absolutely loves this kid,” Kissel said. “(Hochwald’s) very near and dear to everybody here. He’s got a heart of gold, the roar of a lion out there when he scores.

“He’s a wonderful guy,” he added. “It just exemplifies how much he means to this school and the community and our family here that he gets that level of support from everybody.”

The chants weren’t just for Tyler, or even just for the Red Storm, for that matter. The home crowd could be heard cheering on both squads equally.

“I tell you what, I jump and cheer for the other team just as much as I do for us,” Kissel said. “It was quite an experience and certainly for the community and everybody to be here and see a win was pretty special.”

Saranac Lake’s Tyler Hochwald, left, high-fives Cody McDuff-Taylor after scoring a basket during Wednesday’s home game. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

The two schools are part of the Section VII unified basketball league and while the Red Storm came out on top with a 44-34 victory, the result didn’t really matter.

“For these kids to have the experience in front of hundreds and hundreds of their peers, students, parents and people from the community, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for some of these kids,” Kissel said. “They’ll never, ever again play in front of so many people. It really shows the community pride when you see how much support and care there is for our fellow community members, especially in light of everything going on in the world today. It’s a really refreshing piece of humanity and kindness without question.”

Saranac Lake took a 24-18 lead at halftime and held on until the very end despite multiple made baskets, including a few three-pointers by the Hornets.