Students from E2CCB and Maple Grove High School recently linked up with the Edinboro Men’s Wheelchair basketball team to learn more about Adaptive Sports – an initiative that has been gaining popularity with learners of all levels.
“Inclusive Adaptive Sports provides all students and staff the unique opportunity to participate in familiar traditional sports games and activities from a very unfamiliar perspective,” explained Louis Buchman, Physical Therapist for E2CCB and co-organizer for the event.
During these partnerships, participants become fully immersed in situational play that involves the use of adaptive equipment, such as a sport wheelchair, during their PE class time.
According to Buchman, the students learn the skills necessary to play adaptive variations of their favorite games. Specific skills may include working on navigating and steering, self-propulsion in and around their environment, understanding basic maintenance checks and components of the adaptive equipment they are using, learning rules and regulations specific to the adaptive sport, and reviewing safety measures and guidelines.
“An opportunity such as this provides a variety of benefits, including general gross motor and social skill growth and development,” Buchman added. “These experiences may also promote a participant’s development of true empathetic feelings towards others who may live with physical limitations or disabilities.”
The students, enrolled in E2CCB programming at the Hewes Building in Ashville, strapped into wheelchairs and learned how to play the game in a new way. There were different stations for students to explore – including dribbling, passing, and shooting.
“It is really important for the students to see that while others may look different, they still have the ability to do amazing things,” remarked Matt Moore, E2CCB Itinerant Supervisor for the Southern Region.
The program took place at the Maple Grove Jr./Sr. High School gym where over 50 students participated. Some supervisors and teachers got in chairs as well, to join in on the fun.
“This is very important,” said Dwayne Murray, Interim Head Coach for Edinboro’s Wheelchair basketball team. “In life, these young kids are going to interact with people with disabilities of all kinds and we are here today teaching them we are just like everybody else.”
Ryan McFarland, a sophomore at Hewes, took to the court and caught on quickly to this new way of playing hoops.
“It is really fun and inspirational to see the Edinboro guys. They can shoot the ball so well!” McFarland said with a smile.
Organizers of the event say this is just the beginning of Adaptive Sports programming for E2CCB students and expect the program and partnerships to grow in the coming years to benefit education standards.
