Several organizations are in the midst of promoting the creation of a wheelchair adaptive program at UH.
A huge step was taken last weekend when the Justin Dart, Jr. Center for Students with DisABILITIES and the Greater Houston Athletics Association for the Physically Disabled(GHAA-PD), hosted the first annual Amerigroup Community Care Gulf Coast Indoor Wheelchair Soccer Tournament.
‘(GHAA-PD) and I have worked together to develop a good program for students with disabilities to try out different adaptive sports,’ Dart Center assistant director Alan Russell said. ‘Among them: wheelchair rugby, wheelchair basketball and wheelchair soccer. Bringing the GHAA-PD into UH is a good way of showing our students how good these sporting opportunities are and what their potential is.’
Russell said the Dart Center Staff has been working on organizing events on a regular basis to engage more students in adaptive team sports. After a lot of hard work, its goal of sports clubs integrated by students with disabilities is in sight.
One of the most ambitious goals may be hosting paralympic events at places like the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center, the same place the Amerigroup event was held.
‘This is a wonderful facility for paralympic style events and trials. The staff has been very supportive and accommodating with students with disabilities, for which I am thankful, ‘ Russell said.
GHAA-PD President Chhay Mak said such programs need to expand to continue serving incoming disabled veterans.
‘We know that in the very near future, many war veterans are coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan and adaptive sports can be available for them,’ Mak said. ‘This is a great way to empower individuals and get them to see life in a positive way.’
UH Disabled Student Association Treasurer Jason Snead believes having adaptive sports would be a positive step toward flagship status.
‘Diversity is not only skin color, gender and ethnicity, it’s disability too,’ Snead said. ‘Promoting adaptive sports promotes more inclusiveness and gives opportunities for students with disabilities and able students to interact and fulfill their potential.’
Russell and Mak said the success of the program extends to engaging the enthusiasm of able students and community members to participate in wheelchair club sports teams.
‘Our bigger mission is to involve the whole community, disabled or able,’ Mak said. ‘When non-disabled students and members of the Houston community watch disabled people playing wheelchair sports and see the positive attitude of these players, the excitement in their faces is an unstoppable (force). As a disabled athlete, I feel I have an opportunity for changing peoples lives.’
As a disabled child refugee from the killing fields in Cambodia, Mak considers himself a survivor and credits his success to adaptive sports and the scholarship he received to play basketball at the University of Texas at Arlington.
Mak excelled in track and field and set national records, becoming one of the best wheelchair basketball players in Houston.
He was the fifth student in the nation to receive a full basketball scholarship to play wheelchair basketball at UTA, the only school at the time with this type of scholarship program. He played in three of UTA’s four consecutive national championships.
‘We were doing great things for our school. I was living the college athlete life in a wheelchair,’ Mak said. ‘We were honored by President Clinton for winning all those championships and I got to do and see many things. Coming from Cambodia and having been through negative experiences for years and years, hearing people say to me that I couldn’t do this or that is why I support wheelchair sports.’
Russell agrees with Mak and hopes to see the same program established at UH.
‘Ever since I’ve been working with Chhay, I have been interested in replicating what was achieved at UTA,’ Russell said. ‘There, the student body created scholarships for athletes to progress with their university studies, and fund the sporting activities, so wheelchair athletes were able to get scholarships.
‘That promoted the skill level and created a situation where UTA won national championships and produced paralympian athletes. It would be great for the fourth largest city in the nation to have a program that encourages paralympian sports,’ he said. Russell, who competed in the tournament, said during the match, the wheelchair becomes a piece of sporting equipment for the disabled players, not a piece of equipment that limits their abilities.
‘What I love about this tournament is that indoor wheelchair soccer is truly an inclusive sport,’ Russell said. ‘People who use power chairs play as well. You have players using power chairs, manual wheelchairs and able-bodied players and other people who normally wouldn’t use wheelchairs are able to participate, enjoy and share the excitement of the sport.’
Both Russell and Mak hope to introducing adaptive sports outside of the U.S., revealing plans to hold a clinic in Mexico.
‘Our vision is to go international. In fact the GHAA-PD is working with the Mexican Federation in Monterrey to do a clinic there,’ Mak said.
Mak also mentioned other countries that have shown interest, as disabled people from across the globe seek an outlet to display their athletic prowess.
‘Ecuador and Colombia are very interested. We are inviting them to Monterrey, so that we can do the clinic for all three countries,’ Mak said.
Organizers wish to share their experience and inspire in persons with disabilities a desire to grow, become independent and build their self-esteem. Mak said establishing an adaptive sports program is one of his goals, but there are many more associated with wheelchair athletics.
‘I want to change society,’ Mak said. ‘I want to promote an ideal. I want to promote a dream. I want to promote freedom.’
