Tom Heier, a sports fanatic, lives for a three-point swish at the buzzer or a finesse juke for a touchdown run.

But for 10 weeks this year, Heier will trade in scorecards, ranking and statistics to help advise 6 to 12 year olds, some with intellectual and developmental disabilities, in a new sports league with no scores.

The new league, called the Pelican Park Inclusion Recreation League, mixes kids with such disabilities with athletes from mainstream society. The program, at Pelican Park near the Castine Center near Mandeville, is a way to demonstrate how cooperative play has been repeatedly proven to increase social skills among children with and without disabilities. ”It really empowers their life,” said Heier, also a special needs physical education coach for St. Tammany Parish schools. “It helps them focus on things they can do and not what they can’t do.”

The league, funded with a $30,000 grant awarded by the Louisiana Developmental Disabilities Council to the Resource Center on Psychiatric and Behavioral Supports, a sub agency of the state Department of Health and Hospitals, is looking for children 6-12 to participate, Keyes said. Registration begins for the free first session Jan. 5 and lasts through Jan. 20. Call 626-7997 for more information or register in person at the park off U.S. Highway 190.

“It doesn’t matter who you are,” Ann Keyes, recreation superintendent for Pelican Park, said. “And if someone has polio or autism we don’t ask, and we don’t particularly care. Just come out and play.”

Children ages 6-9 will play in one league of 34 kids, while another 34 kids, ages 9-12, will play in another. The first 10-week session will be basketball. Although yet to be scheduled, games will almost always be played on Saturdays.

The second session in the spring will be baseball. Depending on participation, more games will be added, Keyes said.

Heier certainly hopes so. A similar program in Hammond has already started, and droves of students have bowled and played basketball, baseball and football.

Each week it’s a heartwarming scene, he said.

“These kids are just happy to be out there with friends doing what other kids are doing,” he said. “They put those jerseys on and smile ear to ear. It’s sets them up to be successful in life.”