California\u2019s\nadaptive sports programs continue to grow at the high school and college levels.\nChanges are especially positive for youth who aspire to college-level adapted\nathletics or simply want to follow an exceptional adapted team. In November of\n2016, CIF (California Interscholastic Federation) created an inclusive division\nfor high school athletes with disabilities. CIF currently offers state\nchampionship events in Paralympic swimming and Paralympic track and field,\ngiving more students the life-changing opportunity to compete. However, those\nopportunities tend to disappear after graduation. Until recently, local\nathletes struggled to find college-level adaptive sports near home. That\u2019s\nchanging as universities commit to growing adapted sports offerings. <\/p>\n\n\n
San\nDiego State University (SDSU) launched California\u2019s first official program in February\nand UCLA will be close behind. \u201cWe just want to provide access to sports,\u201d says\nSDSU Adapted Athletics Director Ahkeel Whitehead. \u201cWhatever level you\u2019re at,\nthere\u2019s an opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
Here\u2019s\na sneak peek at SDSU\u2019s program on the rise, plus a closer look at the nation\u2019s\ntop colleges for adaptive athletes. <\/p>\n\n\n
San Diego State University<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n Born\nfrom a student organization, SDSU Adapted Athletics entered the college sports\nscene this year, offering wheelchair\ntennis<\/strong> and the nation\u2019s only college ambulatory\ntrack<\/strong> team. As the program continues to grow, Whitehead hopes to expand\nwith wheelchair basketball and aquatics. <\/p>\n\n\n According\nto Whitehead, there are 500\u20131,000 California high school athletes looking for\nadaptive college programs each year. \u201cI was one of those athletes,\u201d he says.\n\u201cMy best friends were going to Brown and Stanford for football, and I thought,\nmaybe there\u2019s a scholarship for me.\u201d At the time, there wasn\u2019t. Whitehead, a\nParalympic track athlete, trained at South Bay\u2019s Olympic training facility (now\nthe Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center) while commuting to SDSU. It was\nthe best available option to achieve both his educational and athletic goals.\nNow, thanks to his leadership, more Aztecs than ever can represent their university\nas student-athletes. Follow the program on Facebook: @SDSUAdaptedAthletics.<\/p>\n\n\n University of Alabama<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n The\nUA wheelchair basketball<\/strong> program had\na stunning season. The women\u2019s team won their sixth National Championship and\nthe men\u2019s team won their third. Alabama\u2019s wheelchair\ntennis<\/strong> players are five-time national champions and their wheelchair track<\/strong> team is competing in\nits first season. <\/p>\n\n\n \u201cWe\nrecently opened a $10 million facility devoted completely to adapted athletics,\u201d\nsays program director Brent Hardin, Ph.D. \u201cThe facility features an arena,\nlocker rooms, weight training, sports medicine, meeting rooms, offices and\nstudent lounge areas.\u201d Follow the program on\nTwitter and Facebook: @AlabamaAdapted.<\/p>\n\n\n University of Arizona<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n U of\nA Adaptive Athletics takes pride in the breadth of its offerings. Sports\ninclude wheelchair basketball<\/strong>, wheelchair rugby, wheelchair track and\nroadracing<\/strong>, handcycling <\/strong>and wheelchair tennis. <\/strong>New this year is an\nadaptive golf<\/strong> team\u2014the first of its\nkind in the U.S. According to Adaptive Athletics Director Peter Hughes, the university\nhopes to offer swimming and triathlon in the near future. <\/p>\n\n\n \u201cOur\ngoal is to support any student, regardless of disability, in getting an education\nwhile chasing their athletic goals,\u201d says Hughes. The program offers\nsummer wheelchair basketball camps for ages 12\u201323. Follow on Twitter:\n@ArizonaAdaptive and Facebook: @AZAdaptiveAthletics.<\/p>\n\n\n University of Illinois at\nUrbana-Champaign<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n A\nleader in wheelchair sports for 70 years, the Illinois Wheelchair Athletics\nprogram includes wheelchair basketball<\/strong>\nand wheelchair track<\/strong>. According to a\nwritten statement from the Office of Campus Life, \u201cIllinois student-athletes\nhave participated in every Paralympic Games since the inaugural event held in\nRome in 1960. In terms of resources, Illinois has the most experienced cadre of\ncoaches, administrators and ancillary support personnel in wheelchair\nathletics.\u201d The program offers summer wheelchair sports camps for high school\nathletes and clinics for coaches. Their goal is to develop and improve adapted\nsports programs throughout the country. Follow on Facebook:\n@IllinoisWheelchairAthletics. <\/p>\n\n\n Interested in checking out more Adapted Athletic Programs? Here are colleges with notable programs: Read about three local kids who are thriving in adaptive wheelchair sports, in Flourishing Families<\/a><\/strong><\/em> 2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" California\u2019s adaptive sports programs continue to grow at the high school and college levels. Changes are especially positive for youth who aspire to college-level adapted athletics or simply want to follow an exceptional adapted team. In November of 2016, CIF (California Interscholastic Federation) created an inclusive division for high school athletes with disabilities. CIF currently […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4682,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[227,4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4681","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"category-general-info","9":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/specialneedsresourcefoundationofsandiego.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/specialneedsresourcefoundationofsandiego.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/specialneedsresourcefoundationofsandiego.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/specialneedsresourcefoundationofsandiego.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/specialneedsresourcefoundationofsandiego.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/specialneedsresourcefoundationofsandiego.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/specialneedsresourcefoundationofsandiego.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/specialneedsresourcefoundationofsandiego.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/specialneedsresourcefoundationofsandiego.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/specialneedsresourcefoundationofsandiego.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Edinboro University (Edinboro, PA)
Oklahoma State
Penn State
University of Central Oklahoma
University of Missouri
University of Oregon
University of Texas at Arlington
University of Wisconsin at Whitewater
Anne Malinoski is a contributing writer and mother of two boys. Her older brother has special needs.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n