A child with Autism wants to play on the basketball team. A child with downs syndrome wants to play on the football team. A child with some mental or physical disability wants to play on the soccer team. Should they be allowed? Should the rules be changed so that particular child can participate?
I’m the director of a sports and recreation ministry in NC and we have youth leagues including the sports mentioned above. We also have children who have mental or physical disabilities that participate in our leagues. The issue we’re often faced with is how to balance competition, fair play, and giving a child with a disability the same good experience as the child without a disability. It’s not an easy task, and I’ve gone back and forth between what I thought would be the best scenario. Later in this blog, I will share with you what I consider to be the best scenario.
I became the director of this ministry in 2008. Prior to that, the youth leagues had been coed up to the senior high level. When we shifted from coed leagues to gender specific leagues, I made a lot of people’s lists (not the good list)! One lady blasted me because her son had a disability and she said that the only reason he was able to thrive was because the league was coed. Well, because of what I believe about children (with or without disabilities) and sports, that got me really fired up.
The problem is that we always tend to focus on the child with the disability. When we do that, what happens? We start to change the way the game should be played in an effort to create a safe environment in which we believe that child can grow and thrive. Here’s the flaw with that way of thinking. The child with the disability will not determine whether or not he/she grows and thrives. It will always be the other players, without disabilities, that determine the experience of the child with the disability. If we focus all our energy on what we can do with the child that has the disability, we’ll miss life’s opportunity to capture some very vital life lessons.
Something magical happens when we teach our youth how to love someone who has a disability. The awesome thing about all of this is that sports gives us an opportunity, like nothing else does, to do just that. In our Senior Boys division of our youth basketball league (one of the most intense divisions we have), there is a young man with a disability. His name is Caleb. To watch him on the court with the other players is life changing. I don’t say that because of what Caleb does while he’s out there. I say that because of what the other players allow Caleb to do while he’s out there.
So…back to what I think is the best scenario for children with disabilities playing youth sports. Ready? Here it is…It’s deep so you might want to sit down for this.
LET THEM PLAY!
It’s not the “special” rules/exceptions that will allow the child with a disability to thrive in youth sports. It’s the spirit of the league. It’s the love of the other players. It’s the attitude of everyone involved (not just the players on his/her same team) that says, “That child is our teammate. What can we do to help him excel?”
When all those ingredients are a part of youth sports, any child will excel regardless of whether he/she has a disability. We quickly forget that “can’t” isn’t true because of a child’s disability. ”Can’t” YET is true for every child!
This kind of “redemption of sports” has to start from the top down…the league, the coaches, the referees, the players, the spectators. Oh what an awesome world we would live in if this is what sports looked like! Let’s redeem sports.
Watch these videos.
As someone who has worked with individuals with disabilities for a very long time, I appreciate this!
Thank you.