UA’s Adapted Athletics to Add New Classes, Non-Competitive Options

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — For all of the successes The University of Alabama’s Adapted Athletics programs have experienced, Dr. Brent Hardin, the program’s director, watched a growing number of students with disabilities yearn for sport.

The wheelchair basketball and tennis teams at UA have won a combined five national titles, and more than 20 UA student-athletes and coaches participated in the 2012 Paralympic Games in London. But, beyond UA’s gold medalists and national champions, some students “just want to play ball.”

UA students with disabilities now have non-competitive sporting options.

Hardin and Dr. Margaret Stran, assistant director and professor of kinesiology, have expanded the adapted athletics program beyond its high-performance sports (men’s and women’s wheelchair basketball and tennis) – all of which have full-time coaches and staff – to include greater emphasis on its emerging sports (rowing, track and golf).

Additionally, Stran, who heads the emerging sports wing of UA Adapted Athletics, has taken a new role in improving the recreation experience on campus. Stran is teaching an adapted sports class of about 40 students and will create a new class in which students can learn to play each sport.

“There’s a lot of excitement within our community that we’re able to do this now,” Hardin said. “(Dr.) George (Brown, executive director of University Recreation) and his staff are really excited. It links us more to some of the other missions in the College of Education, too, making us a part of some classes.”

Stran will teach two sections of adapted physical education beginning spring 2015. The class will serve as an overview of various disabilities and will include field experience. Additionally, starting in the fall, she’ll teach an adapted sport class, which will be geared toward students with and without disabilities.

“We’ll get in wheelchairs and play basketball and tennis as well as other sports like sit volleyball and beep baseball,” Stran said. “It will be a dynamic class in terms of what we do based on who signs up and the types of disabilities they have.”

Stran serves as the program’s liaison with University Recreation and meets with its staff once every two weeks, when ideas for activities are shared and needs are addressed. The possibilities for sports and programs are endless, Stran said, noting sports like power-chair soccer, adapted skiing and kayaking.

The Recreation Center has four Cybex Total Access: Inclusive Fitness machines, press and row machines that can be used by those with physical impairments and other exercisers, in both the Student Recreation Center and the Student Activities Center Presidential Village.

“Also, other pieces in our facilities, outside of this specific equipment line, are accessible to those that use wheelchairs. For one example, the cable machines,” said Kristen Durham, associate director of UA Recreation Services.

Further growth of the Adapted Athletics’ new sports and activities, though, will hinge on funding. Hardin said the University’s support and funding, along with support and funding from donors, have helped build the high-performance sports programs, but the new programs will require new funding streams, like grants from organizations who support military veterans or people with specific injuries, like spinal cord injuries.

“(University Recreation) were very into 3-on-3 wheelchair basketball, but the problem is chairs,” Stran said. “Do we have enough wheelchairs that just anyone can use? Obviously, we can’t let someone else use an athlete’s wheelchair, so we need basketball wheelchairs that are more generic. Part of it is easy, where we can say ‘you’re interested, let’s do seated aerobics.’ But wheelchair basketball and weight equipment – those are things we need money for.”

Stran said the expansion of adapted athletics and the creation of the new classes can help attract students.

“There’s a vibrant community,” Stran said. “If a university has an adapted sports program, and you have a physical disability, you know the campus will be more accessible. I couldn’t have imagined 11 years ago that there would be as many students on campus now who have disabilities.”