Ever since I was in 5th grade, as cliche as it sounds, I have known that I wanted to help people. I didn’t know how or who, just that I would make a difference in someone’s life someday. During my sophomore year, I was presented with an opportunity of a lifetime. My school had decided to participate in Unified Sports and have a unified basketball team. Unified sports is where peers, like myself, and athletes with disabilities play an organized sport together. This program gives kids opportunities to really feel like a part of something, of a team; something they normally wouldn’t have. The first year my school participated in Unified Basketball, only 6 schools in WNY had a team but the next year it almost tripled to 16. The first year our team had 4 athletes and only 5 peers. The second year, the team grew to 10 athletes and 8 peers, doubling our numbers.
With an injury preventing me from playing my junior year, I helped coach. I spent most of my time with the kids who’s disabilities made it unsafe for them to play on the court, primarily vision related. I would run drills on the side of the gym during practice. These kids were amazing. Life has thrown so much at them yet everyday they came
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This is a regular gym class where a peer like myself is paired up with a kid with disabilities. The peers help their buddies perform the activities and encourage them. I was paired with a boy who made it very clear that he did not like gym class. He would yell at me, ignore me and just be plain rude when I talked to him. As the year went along, he seemed slowly to enjoy gym more and like talking with me; even his teachers noticed the difference. He had never gotten along with his gym buddy before me. It wasn’t until the end of the year that realized how important I was to this boy. He had never had someone his age be truly nice to him and supportive while still making sure he followed the
Both on an off the field, my enthusiasm and motivation to obtain a goal is a trait that I am very proud of. I have faced many tasks where a leader had needed to step up and I am always willing to do so. I am also willing to get help when I need it. If I can’t complete a task by myself I do not mind asking a classmate, teammate, friend or a teacher for guidance. By bringing that openness and leadership to University of Charleston’s Athletic Training Program I believe that I can also attribute to the University of Charleston’s Mission Statement “to educate each student for a life of productive work, enlightened living, and community involvement.” By bettering the Athletic Training community by providing care to our Athletes I believe that I will be a great addition to the Athletic Training
Thus, through my personal principles and values I show great strength of One of these causes, the Miracle League of the South Hills is particularly close to my heart. A friend of my mother has a child who is severely autistic, and all my life my family and I have volunteered for many organizations to help special needs children, of all of these Miracle League has left the greatest impression on me. Ghandi once said, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others,” and that is exactly what has happened to me during my long term association with the Miracle League. I truly believe my association with this organization has helped me to become a better person, more kind, caring, outgoing, and energetic. Miracle League was founded on the belief that, “Every child deserves a chance to play baseball.”
As previously mentioned in my planning stage, I had chosen to assist ‘David’ to partake in a group basketball game for completion of my HNC Social Care Graded Unit project. In studying David’s support plan; I had identified his social skills needed slight improvement, with his self-motivation needing most encouragement. I believe the group sports activity we planned and performed met these objectives. Additionally, my placement supervisor has forwarded confirmation of the successful completion of this task via email to my senior lecturer.
Not many athletes have gone on to have careers in professional sports. In today’s sports world there is a young man out of the University of Central Florida named Shaquem Griffin who had his hand amputated when he was a child. Griffin is now a projected draft pick in the upcoming 2018 NFL Draft. These two athletes could have given up on their dreams, but they see past their disability and know that their lives are still
Starting my freshman year at County High School, I played basketball and loved every minute of it. I wouldn’t be conceited enough to say I was good, but God did bless me with the talent to play. My life revolved around the sport of basketball; some would say I slept, ate, and breathed every part of it. I spent all my time training and practicing to make myself a more dedicated athlete. This dedication not only helped me as a player, but also molded me into the person I am today. It somehow helped to prepare me for what defeat I would face with back surgery in the future.
The qualities I have developed on the tennis team have helped me become a better team member and individual. I now find myself volunteering more in my community to provide an example of never giving up and with the realization that someone is always there to help when you need help. Every day I am reminded that I could have given up. But I didn’t and that is what made me a stronger person to go forth and fulfill my dreams and
Donating money to non-profit organizations that support underprivileged youth, providing complimentary tickets to young fans and their families, hosting basketball clinics, and hosting educational challenges are a few approaches being supported through this program. It appears to me that the entire organization understand their obligation to the community. According to the Sixers website 36% of all children in Philadelphia lives in poverty, 41% struggles with weight problems, and only 44% are proficient in reading and math. These statistics, in my opinion, strikes a chord with many of the players in the league.
After-school athletics is typically presented as a productive outlet for students to engage with one another and learn within a team environment. However, through an intersectional lens it should be taken into question whether playing sports is enjoyable or even possible without reaping the benefits of gender, heteronormative, and numerous other privileges. Reflecting on my own personal experience of playing high school basketball, I take a closer look as to how it was shaped by the many facets of intersectionality and privilege. In analyzing my experience, I will argue why sports is a constant force in reproducing gender binaries and oftentimes baneful to those who do not conform to heteronormativity.
"Special Education and Sports: The Disabilities Act and Interscholastic Sports." Special Education and Sports: The Disabilities Act and Interscholastic Sports. N.p., n.d. Web. 30
I worked very hard every day at practice to show why they needed me on the field. I was so excited when I got to play in my first high school tournament. I had to be a pinch runner for the pitcher and I scored the first point in the game. At the end of the season that yearev, they finally realized we were losing all of our games because of this one girl, so they took her out and put me in and moved everyone’s positions around.
On the surface, basketball has a number of impacts on young people. For instance, the boys and girls who participate in basketball learn certain positive character traits. There is evidence to suggest that because of participation, they have a better attendance in school, better grades associated with good behavior in school, and less trouble and rarer discipline issues. In addition, students also have better citizenship in school as well as the community, and an upward mobility orientation like joining college later on in life.
Abstract: The Special Olympics not only give special athletes athletic skills, they offer more opportunity, encouragement, and dexterity to survive in society than the public school system alone. To understand the differences and similarities between handicapped athletes and their non-handicap peers is the first step in creating a program that best meets the child's needs. There were no community programs that catered to the mentally and physically challenged, so Eunice Kennedy-Shriver created "special games" in her back yard for her handicapped child. Shriver established the Special Olympics in 1968. Today there are more than one million special athletes competing in 140 countries. There are some problems with relying on the public school system to seek a child's full potential in the special education programs. The Special Olympics, however, have found an effective method of preparing children, teens, and adults for society through sport. The diverse selection of sports, their rules, and physical demands, is an advantage when there is a huge range of disabilities. There is a program offered for almost everyone. People who benefit from these games range from the athletes themselves, the officials, coaches, caregivers, parents, to the spectators and on-site first aid staff. Mrs. Kennedy-Shriver said this in regard to special athletes, "through sports, they can realize their potential for growth." Over and over this fantastic organization has demonstrated integrity, good sportsmanship, and goal oriented programs that work!
For example, he could play catch with everyone, but he could not play the popular sport that we played every day, which was kickball. So our PE teacher let him throw the ball to the kicker while he sat in his wheelchair. The kicker kicked the ball into the field and ran the bases. This made the student that had an orthopedic impairment apart of the game because he did that for both teams, and it was something that he could actually do instead of just watching everyone else play the game. Some of the students that had a disability were also very active on our different sports team for the school.
He sprints up and down the court, as sweat pours down his face and on to the hardwood. The player’s legs are in severe pain, and he is out of breath, yet he continues to run, utilizing every last portion of energy that he maintains. He desires to better himself, not necessarily for his own benefit, but for the benefit of his team. He knows that every single member of the team, including himself, must work as hard as they possibly can on the court to reach their potential and achieve success. Organized sports teach athletes some of the most powerful moral values and life lessons that any individual can attain. Despite the opposing opinion that students who take part in organized sports suffer academically due to time deprivation and focus misdirected away from the classroom, involvement in sports teaches young men and women to maintain imperative values, such as hard work, selflessness, and commitment, which ultimately improves student-athletes’ academic performance.
Also containing leadership characteristics helps athletes with their social skills. Worsnop, Richard L. points out “there is a general agreement that the nation’s high schools have performed well as the farm system for college sports programs”. In other words team sports presents valuable life lessons and experiences within a group setting. There are endless situations that could take place between the teammates or with the opponents during the game. The fans or known as the community displays a huge part in the sports world and how they distribute their insight on it. Statistics have shown that “ High school teams command legions of devoted fans locally and nationally” (Worsnop). As shown the community is devoted to all types of sports and they see athletes representation and how they react in certain situations. For example the sports that involve physical contact like football and basketball could get out of