Paralympic Sport Club Receives Recognition
The Metro Parks Paralympic Sport Club was recently featured on the nationally acclaimed U.S. Paralympics website. Writer Caryn Maconi chronicled the adaptive sports program from its 2008 introduction when it focused specifically on athletes with physical disabilities to its current level serving a much broader population including civilians, both children and adults.
With abundant military populations nearby, Metro Parks first focused on aiding in the rehabilitation of injured service members through adaptive sports. The club continues to work closely with the Warrior Transition Battalion Unit and the VA Hospital, training injured service members year-round to compete at veteran-focused events like the Valor Games and the Warrior Games presented by Deloitte.
This year, Metro Parks staff began emphasizing youth programming, conducting demonstrations at local elementary schools and recruiting younger athletes in hopes of widening the population it serves. Siblings and friends of adaptive athletes are encouraged to join in on sports like goalball and wheelchair basketball by putting on a facemask or strapping into a chair.
As a Paralympic Sport Club, Metro Parks strives not only to introduce people with disabilities to adaptive sports, but also to bring those that are more competitive into the Paralympic pipeline in hopes of representing Team USA at a Paralympic Games. The Tacoma Titans, Metro Parks’ wheelchair basketball team, is split into developmental and a competitive squads. The competitive squad is recognized by the National Wheelchair Basketball Association and competes on the national level.
Today, Metro Parks is a thriving Paralympic Sport Club that offers instruction in wheelchair basketball, goalball, archery, swimming, track and field, handcycling, kayaking, boccia and more. The club has a small paid staff, but is governed by an all-volunteer board of directors.
Learn more about the program at MetroParksTacoma.org/Adaptive.
Filed under: Parks, Sports