BYU-Idaho is holding its first ever Adaptive Sports Competition today
Adaptive sports are tailored to individuals with disabilities who want to participate in a recreational environment. Tyler Dustin, a BYU-Idaho faculty member, teaches an adaptive sports class and wants to get students more involved in the adaptive sports world.
“I teach in therapeutic recreation, and one of the classes is adaptive recreation, teaching the students how, when they get out and working with individuals with disabilities, how they can get them involved in a recreation environment,” Dustin said. “And I think giving students the opportunity to see that there are adaptive activities, they can be more inclusive to individuals with disabilities by involving them more.”
Makenna Taylor, a BYU-Idaho student and president of Therapeutic Recreation Society, said taking the class helped fuel her desire to be more involved.
“It was the best because it really does open your eyes to the different possibilities,” Taylor said. “There’s so many sports that you can play, especially if you have visual impairments, which I didn't really know before, or other things like that. And there's a place and an opportunity, for everyone to be involved still.”
Taylor and Dustin are partnering with the BYU-Idaho Campus Recreation Department to host the first ever Adaptive Sports Competition. Participants will learn to play sports such as wheelchair pickleball, goal ball and sit volleyball.
“A lot of these sports adapted from World War II, when soldiers were coming home with amputations or, different types of disabilities,” Dustin said. “That's where a lot of these have come from and originated, and then throughout time have kind of been adapted as we've gone.”
Wheelchair pickleball and goal ball will be played in a single elimination tournament and sit volleyball will be played as a group after the tournaments.
Taylor says the goal of this event is to help bring out the best in people and give everyone a chance to participate in recreational activities.
“We focus on people's abilities and their strengths,” Taylor said. “And I feel like this is one way that we can play to everyone's strengths. Even though they may have varying abilities. What we want to focus on is what we can do and what we can do as a group and a team.”
Participants can sign up on the I-Belong app or at the Campus Recreation Department website with a team of five or individually. The Adaptive Sports Competition will start at 6 tonight and end at 8 p.m.