Assistant for Special Projects Victor Calise brought his usual, passionate voice to the Edward R. Murrow, Jr. High School in the Midwood section of Brooklyn recently to talk to students with disabilities about participating in adaptive sports. Calise, a member of several United Spinal wheelchair sports teams himself, showed the kids a fast-paced video including clips from wheelchair softball, basketball, and tennis. He spent the rest of the time discussing his injury, his lifestyle and his adaptive sports experience.
The Murrow High School has a total of 450 students with disabilities, and about 20% of them use wheelchairs. The kids are mainstreamed into the physical education classes at the school, participating with other able-bodied students. Adaptive sports offered include volleyball and baseball. Unfortunately, there aren’t many after school sports activities available to the students with disabilities.
Calise visited with two separate classes, of about 20 kids each, during his morning at the campus. He started each session by telling the students how he was injured in a bicycle accident, and how it had changed his life. He shared with the students how his involvement in wheelchair sports turned his life around and on a heading in the right direction.
Calise told the youngsters how individual sports can be adapted to wheelchair users. For instance, softball is played on an asphalt surface and many batters swing with just one hand. Hockey is contested from a sled and with much shorter sticks, used also for propulsion.
He also encouraged the kids to contact the United Spinal Association to participate in the sports clinics that we hold all year round. Calise then discussed the Paralympics, explaining that they are for skilled athletes who have disabilities, and that they take place every four years after the Olympics. Calise was a member of the 1998 U.S. Sled Hockey team, which competed in the Nagano, Japan Paralympics.
The video that Calise showed got the kids moving and singing along, and really just plain into it! The pace of the adaptive sports equaled the beat of the music. As the kids watched the athletes on the video in astonishment, they exclaimed, “Wow!” “Awesome!” or “I’d love to do that!”
Victor concluded his presentation by answering a stream of questions from the kids about the video, adaptive sports and himself. Some of the questions they asked were, “Do you have to be in a wheelchair to participate?” “Can women participate, too?” and “What was the first adaptive sport you played?”
The kids were buzzing about the presentation after it had ended, discussing among themselves what sports they liked best. Gary Coleman, a student who uses a wheelchair, exclaimed, “It was awesome! I’d like to try swimming, skiing and basketball.” Another student, Terrell Thomas, who had attended one of the Association’s wheelchair softball clinics in the past, said, “I can’t wait to play softball again. It’s so much fun.”
The enthusiasm the students showed following the presentation thrilled Charlyne Platzman, the school’s physical education teacher. “Only one youngster had shown any interest in sports before this,” commented Platzman. “They are all excited about getting together for a sports clinic with United Spinal. It was a great presentation!”
Anita Konig, a paraprofessional for one of the students, was inspired by the display. “This was such a great idea,” commented Konig. “These kids don’t get exposed to opportunities in sports like this. It’s wonderful.”
The United Spinal Association has been providing presentations about veterans and disability issues to schools in the New York City system for many years now. We look forward to our ever-developing relationship with the Department of Education, and to providing adaptive sports clinics for more of their students in the future.
Mary Kate Carew is Assistant Public Affairs Officer.
