All right, welcome everyone to this evening's Member May session. Thank you for joining us tonight. Just a few housekeeping notes before we begin. A reminder that the views expressed during the session are those of the individual presenters and participants and do not necessarily reflect the positions of AAPMNR. AAPMNR is committed to maintaining a respectful and inclusive and safe environment in accordance with our Code of Conduct and Anti-Harassment Policy available at aapmr.org. All participants are expected to engage professionally and constructively. This learning activity is being recorded and will be made available on the Academy's online learning portal. An email will be sent out after this activity with a link to bring you to the recording and the evaluation. For the best attendee experience during this activity, please mute your microphone when you're not speaking. And finally, to ask a question, please use the raise your hand feature and unmute if called upon or use the chat feature to type your question. Please note that time may not permit the panel to field every question. And with that, I'm going to hand this over to Dr. Latorre and I hope you have a wonderful session. Thank you. Hi everyone. Thanks for coming and joining the adaptive sports AAPMNR community. I quickly wanted, before we started, just to introduce our panelists. First up, we have Dr. Victoria Heasley, who's one of our AAPMNR sports medicine physiatrists from coming from Cincinnati. We have Dr. Margaret Strand, who's coming from Bama, and then one of my good friends, Christopher Kelly, coming from Michigan. So the way we're going to do this is we're going to first have just a quick little PowerPoint where everyone's going to kind of introduce their program, give a little highlights, and then after that, we'll start the questions up. So if you have any questions, feel free to put them in the chat and I'll keep it up to ask, as well as if you want to put your hand up, feel free to do that as well and then come onto the Zoom video and then ask whatever questions you have. But we'll get started right away here, so we don't waste any time. So, all right. So first up, we're going to have Dr. Heasley tell us a little bit about their program in Cincinnati. Thanks. Hi, everyone. Super excited to be here with Alabama, Michigan. It was one of my goals to start a college-level adaptive sports program, and so I was really, really happy to start that at University of Cincinnati. We just finished our first year of the official program. So most of the slides I told you about that we'll kind of go through, I don't need to read everything to you guys, but basically how I started the program, because I know a lot of programs are already like pretty established and we had to start from scratch. So go ahead. So basically, what we were really wanting to, we primed and we did a lot of work in the Cincinnati area before I went to pitch to the University of Cincinnati to have an adaptive sports program. And so really the strong foundation that I've been working on with a lot of my colleagues for the past five or six years was really being sure we were setting ourselves up for success and that UC, when we pitched it, they wouldn't say no. So we had a UC team physician. So I'm a sports medicine doctor. I'm one of the team physicians for the University of Cincinnati. So I was already kind of embedded in the athletics department and athletics program. So I kind of knew a lot of obviously the people and also, you know, unfortunately, everything, right, the politics and how everyone works together. I already had established a multidisciplinary adaptive sports clinic here. So I'm already kind of known and had that infrastructure set up in my own sports clinics, as well as my national sports clinic with physical therapists and athletic trainers who all were specialized in adaptive sports. And then, oh, sorry, I was gonna say, I'm an engineering professor. And so I already was doing a lot of biomedical engineering research for adaptive sports. So kind of already in the university system at that standpoint, again, really trying to make adaptive sports really critical in the university overall and as many departments as I could. And then, yeah, the next slide, the community for the bridge. So we have a nonprofit in Cincinnati that I'm one of the co-founders of called the Bridge Adaptive Sports and Recreation. And so because we already had this foundation already set for Cincinnati, we already had like the whole athletes, we already knew the number. So far, people in the community that are interested in doing it, and we were really missing the mark of targeting college level students. We were losing a lot of athletes to Bama, Auburn, Michigan. And so we really wanted to be able to have that in our own hometown, but also be able to obviously recruit athletes here in Cincinnati. So this was a huge part of the success that we already had a lot of this infrastructure in place. Go ahead. So our vision, obviously, creating the pitch and everything is really to create an inclusive, supportive, and competitive athletic community, the University of Cincinnati, where all students of abilities could find a home. So this first year, we really started with individual sports. That's what made sense to us. We had six athletes to start, and we had wheelchair tennis and track and field. And the person that we had hired for our program director, he is a former Paralympian in wheelchair basketball. And so his and my goal, collectively, since we're the co-founders, is to start wheelchair basketball team in the next two to three years. And luckily, he's already in that world. So that's one of his goals. And we had had this, when we pitched this to UC, I had him in mind as our program director to hire. And so that also helped us because it's not like we had to go for a national search or something. We already had someone in mind that was already local. So again, helped us that transition. As soon as they approved it, we were ready to start. And I think for anyone who's interested in doing this at a local university, I think what really helped me succeed with the pitch is really understanding and showing the impact beyond. So not just on campus, but the greater Cincinnati and beyond, for sure, is really helpful. And I don't need to read this. We can always come back to this. But I think really just demonstrating that it's not just about the UC campus or any campus, for that matter. It's really just what can be helpful throughout our whole country, but also students everywhere. And then one of my tips that I would say for me that was really helpful is who to partner with when we really started. Student Affairs and the accessibility departments was really helpful for me. I had talked to some of our friends at Arizona and Michigan and Auburn and everything for tips of how to start. I had really great success with Student Affairs and Accessibility Departments. And that helped me get in with a lot of the vice provost of admissions of Student Affairs and really helped me kind of kickstart, I would say, getting into the weeds of the university. And then also facilities and facility management is really important. I was already in the Athletics Department, so that was really helpful. And if you don't know, if you're not in Athletics Department, find someone that can help be your ally there as well. And then vocational rehab was really helpful for admissions, for scholarships, and then obviously funding sources. I'm not going to go through this. Yeah, sorry. Sorry, Yohan. This is just really big details. But I think obviously athletes know who is around on the campus when you're starting the program. It's ideal to already have students that are already at your university. So it's really simple for us to like, hey, these are already your students, you're not providing them this opportunity, and they want to be athletes in college. And that was really helpful. As we were pitching. I already mentioned the program director, we already had someone in mind, which was also helpful for the pitch. And then obviously funding, the way we started our funding to have our seed funding is we had an internal grant that we won. And then for sustainability, obviously sponsors, foundation support and fundraising. Um, medical considerations. Obviously, everyone knows these things on this on this call, but really just make sure you have an athletic trainer who can be dedicated to the adaptive sports teams. And who has that experience physician who's willing to take these patients and is and we have a physical therapist as well that's also trained in adaptive sports. And yeah, that's UC. So that's how we started. I'm happy to answer questions when we keep going. Thanks, guys. All right, next step is Bama. Everybody, I'm Margaret strands, right? And Victoria is kind of hilarious because your start is totally different than yours. So next slide. So this is not just to show you me when I'm young, but to kind of give you a little background of how we started the program. So when I started playing wheelchair basketball in 1991, there was one collegiate women's wheelchair basketball program in 2003. When we started the program here at Bama, there were two programs. So we started with wheelchair basketball, you can go to the next slide. We started with wheelchair basketball, you can go to the next one. Because there was the need. And after playing, I started coaching. And so you can go to the next one too. And so it was a real like no brainer to start with women's wheelchair basketball, because that's what we knew. And the way is me and my husband, Brent Hardin, we were actually coaching together. And that's how we met in Georgia. And so when like Victoria said, you know, they started with individual sports, and starting with individual sports is smart, because it's super easy, you can go to the next slide. But for us, starting with what we knew and what we were passionate about made more sense. But it's definitely easier to start with like an individual sport, because if you have one person, then you have a tennis team, right? You have one runner, you have a track team, but we didn't go that route. We started with wheelchair basketball, because that's what we knew. And so that's what we knew. And so our mission, as you can read here, right, is to give our athletes the same or, you know, proportionate experiences as a standup athletes on campus. Next slide. And so we, like I said, we started with women's wheelchair basketball, we added men's wheelchair basketball in 2006, wheelchair tennis in 2011. Next slide. And then paratrack and field, this is our second season. And so this has been a whole new foray. It's a whole lot of different moving parts. And that's been fascinating, because it's it's just so different than team sports, even the individual sport of tennis. And so that's pretty cool. So next slide. And then since we started in 2003, we've had folks in the Paralympics since 2004. And I think this speaks to Victoria's point about the impact that we have, right? It's not just our athletes, it's not just our neighborhoods, it's the world. And we now have Bama athletes all around the world who are impacting the Paralympic Games who go back to their home countries who go back, and they talk about the power of adapted sport. And you cannot undersell the importance of that on quality of life, on health, on mental well-being. And so like, of course, gold medals and national championships are amazing. But what sport gives people is so meaningful. And so that's why championships and Paralympics matter, because of what they give people in terms of sport, and who they are, and their self-esteem, and their growth, and their mental health. Okay, next slide. So when we started, we started with a $5,000 grant, and me and Brent, and you can see us there. And we now have, we call this sort of like the background people. So we're all the people now who are in the back doing everything. And then next slide, this is our coaches. And so we have grown immensely, but like any program that starts when we started, it was me and Brent doing everything, literally from the laundry, to writing the grants, to coaching the team, to driving the bus, to whatever needed to be done. And now we have this amazing staff to get everything done, and take us to the next level. And so with that, next slide, we got, like I said, we started, and Victoria talked to this too, right? We use a lot of the same resources that she mentioned. One of the big ones that we have started to tap into recently is NIL. And obviously, it's a little different than like the football NIL, but it has been a pretty good way to get students funding, in addition to all of the other avenues. And it's, you know, it's a constant cycle of university funding, and then supplementing that with scholarships, and book rehab, and grants, and sponsorships, and donations, and all of that. And, you know, like anybody, right? We're always trying to do more, and get more, so that we can do more for more athletes. Next slide. One of the cool things that, about our program that's unique, that was our buildings. And so we have the arena, which was opened in 2018. And it's an amazing facility. And that's mostly for wheelchair basketball. That's where our court is. That's where we have our big events. But that's also, we have our weight room in there. You can see a picture of that, and locker rooms. And then we have the tennis facility that we opened in, goodness, I can't remember now. 2020 or 2021? I can't remember. Anyway, and that's similar in terms of it has offices, it has locker rooms, and then it's adjacent to the tennis courts right there. And so we are housed, actually, in the College of Education. We are not in Athletics. We're not in Disability Services. We're not in Recreation. And that's because that's where Brent and I teach. And so does Brent in the college as well. And so Victoria kind of touched on it, right? Like, we have keys to the buildings, and that's how we got in. And that's how we, where we are. It's interesting to listen to Victoria's story, because, you know, she did the groundwork, she laid everything. We were just like, hey, we're going to do this. And we literally started in 2003 with $5,000 with no plan, no medical, no nothing. So we've come a long, long way on our journey. And I'm just glad that we, you know, have made it without any major hiccups. But the facilities are amazing. And they really support what we do and allow us to do what we do at a higher level than we ever could before. So that's been really amazing. And then next slide. So where are we going from here? So we're already outgrowing the arena and the tennis facility with track. It's really grown a lot more than we expected at the pace that we expected. And it's a great problem to have. So we're wanting to expand out here to put places for the track athletes to have lockers, more offices, a lounge area for the students, and that type of thing. And then we're looking ahead for in a few years to start paraswimming. And Arizona has paraswimming right now. And so it'd be really cool to really get a collegiate paraswimming, you know, championship rivalry type thing going. And then research and education is really the next components that we are looking at, because we've done really well with the sports. And obviously, there's more to do with the sports. So I'm not saying we're neglecting that. But any of you who have worked with adapted athletes know there's no research, there's no research about how do we recover? What is, you know, what is the best thing, like, having someone who's, you know, a C seven incomplete quad, and somebody who's a single below the knee amputee doing the exact same workout and expect them to recover in the same way is ridiculous. But we do it because we don't have any research, and we don't have any knowledge about what really is the best for these different athletes based on their different amounts of function. And so that's a huge area that we're looking to grow. And starting, we've done a lot of research with athletic trainers on campus with engineering, with our sports med folks with our athletic trainer, so really working on building that. And then at the education piece, too, we're really, you know, we have this amazing program, and we have these great facilities, but we don't have the education piece to go with it in terms of, you know, undergrad focus in adapted or master's in adapted. So we've actually got a certificate in Paralympic sport for the undergrad level that just got approved, that'll start in the fall. And then we're working on a postbac certificate in Paralympic sport, and then eventually do a master's and a concentration and a PhD in adapted sports. So those are definitely areas of growth that we're looking at, because their needs, and there's just a lot of potential there. So next slide. And then just these are a couple of the other ways that we work with folks on campus and, you know, sitting down, or if you have a unique body, like some of our folks here, you know, just the clothes you wear. And so we partnered with the fashion design on campus, and they actually just started an adapted certificate in fashion design. And so that's a really cool collaboration that's come out of some of the stuff we do. And then next slide. And then I mentioned the engineering. And so we work a lot with, I do senior design projects, I've been doing those since 2018. And just a lot of stuff for our weight room, just to address some of the specific needs for our athletes to help, again, maximize their function and their potential. And then working with echo car and engineers, they're an echo car is a four year project that works with the Cadillac Lyric, and GM, and they have, it's called equity and mobility. And so I've been partnering with them. And we're working on some really cool, exciting things to help make driving with hand controls a little bit more user friendly, and a little bit easier and more inclusive. So that's really exciting. And then Tikanola Makers is a, it's a really awesome organization that does open source solutions, assistive solutions for folks with disabilities. And so I've partnered with them, and we've been doing a lot of really fun, exciting projects with them. And so that those kind of are specific examples of some of the education pieces, and ways we can expand our reach beyond just sport, to really help create change in the world and help create change. And I think that's the other thing too, with the education pieces, the classes I teach, I'm proposing a lot of new classes to help educate more people about folks with disabilities, and the things that are out there. So next slide. And then just, you know, obviously, right, like, how do you get involved in different things? And I don't expect people to, like, come and be Bama fans. But if you want to be a Bama fan, then here's ways to get involved. And just telling more people, right, like, I know, for me, when I started using a wheelchair, one of the most powerful things was meeting somebody else who used a wheelchair and then getting introduced to adapted sports. So while you may not want to become a VEMA fan, you may have some patients or clients who you interact with who need to, if not play sport, at least be around other folks like them who have similar experiences who can say, I get it in a way that somebody without a disability can. And so I said it before and I'll say it again, the power of sport is just so important for the quality of life for people with disabilities. So really encourage you to, again, even if it's not VEMA, but any program that's around where you are and where you're located and getting folks engaged in that, letting them see that, letting them see what's possible because one other thing, and then I'll be quiet, but I think often when you have a disability, people don't really see you as a physical being. And that is, that's just not true. And so I think it's really important for folks, especially with an acquired disability, to see that they can still exist and succeed and, you know, be as physical beings just as they were before. So that's that. And then obviously if anybody has questions now or we can wait until after Chris goes. Next up is Chris with Michigan. Awesome. Thank you so much. So as Dr. Latorre said, my name is Chris Kelly. I'm the assistant director for the University of Michigan adaptive sports and fitness program. And before I kind of get started into what our program does, I'll give a little bit of an introduction on how I first got connected into sport. So I was born with a physical disability. And I grew up watching my older brother play sport. I grew up watching him play baseball and hockey and football. And as a young kid with a disability who didn't see other people with disabilities playing in sport, I thought that my introduction or my place in sport was as a spectator, was as a fan, was, you know, as my brother's supporter, I didn't know that I was ever going to be able to be an athlete. I didn't know that that was an identity that I could hold. Until I frankly got lucky and my dad happened to find an adaptive sports program in Grand Rapids and I got in a sports wheelchair for the first time. And from the moment I got in a sports wheelchair, I absolutely fell in love with parasport. I fell in love with wheelchair tennis. Wheelchair tennis ended up being the sport that I played in, still play, still love it. And from that moment, I realized that I wanted to work in sport. I wanted to pursue a career in sport, which eventually then led me to the University of Michigan to get my master's in sports management. And the reason that I chose Michigan was because it had the academics I was looking for, but it was also a growing program. It was a new program, but it was a, it was a growing program. So really the, the University of Michigan adaptive sports and fitness program, it had pretty humble beginnings. It started in 2018. Dr. Faramir Okunlani, who's a physician working in Michigan medicine, he realized that, you know, Michigan did not have any parasport and he questioned why. And instead of just questioning why he decided he was going to do something about it. And he was relatively new into the, into the world of, of adaptive sport. So it started, it started a little bit slow. They would have, you know, monthly wheelchair basketball drop-in, monthly wheelchair tennis drop-in. And I would say 2020, the fall of 2020 is really when the program started to take shape. We got a little bit lucky. We got a little bit fortunate in that there were six student athletes who were all coming to U of M the same semester, which gave us a good, good base to start a program. Similar to the University of Cincinnati, we started with individual sports. We had one track and field athlete. We had technically one wheelchair tennis athlete. We had a couple of wheelchair basketball athletes that, that were going to become wheelchair tennis athletes. They just didn't know it yet. And that's, that's really how the program started to take, take its form. We had pretty quick success, I would say with wheelchair tennis in our first year of competing in 2021, once COVID restrictions started to lift a little bit, we placed second at collegiate wheelchair tennis nationals. And at this point in the program, I think it's important to note, we didn't have any full time staff. Dr. Rowe had taken a position within student accessibility and accommodation services. So he was managing disability in general on campus. We had our current associate director, Erica Besnicks, who had an appointment within Michigan Medicine, but was, you know, doing a lot of work for building the foundation of the program. And then we had Johan, who was volunteering his time, making sure that the, the tennis team had a coach. And then the rest of it was just students, student manpower of making sure that if we ordered apparel, it was getting sorted and given to who needed it. When we traveled, you know, Eric would do the booking. And then sometimes we would be able to travel with staff. Sometimes we wouldn't be able to travel with staff. And it just, it built, it was built on passion, but with the goal of making sure that our plan was going to be sustainable. So we wanted to make sure that as soon as we had the ability to hire people and hire full time people and have base funded permanent positions, we could get those base funded permanent positions. You know, we, we now luckily have, you know, 12 staff members with appointments within ASF. So we've got five coaches that manage our competitive teams. We have two people that manage our adaptive sport and inclusive recreation initiative. We still have Dr. Eric and I, who do a lot of the behind the scenes work. And we have a great partnership with university health services, where we have a physical therapist, athletic trainer, and we collaborate quite a bit with kinesiology, where we have a sport, sport psychologist. So I'll kind of give an overview based on the graphic on the screen right now of the different parts of what our program is today. So we have an adaptive sports student group on campus, and they help out with a lot of our ongoing programming, but they also do their own clinics, their own kind of one off events. It's just a student ran program for kids on campus for students on campus that have a passion for adaptive sports. We have the adaptive sport research consortium, which brings together researchers in adaptive sports from multiple institutions. Again, as you guys heard, there is a laughable lack of research in parasport, and there just needs to be more. And that's something that we're really passionate in supporting. We have the adaptive student athlete program, which is funded through Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, and their goal is to support the growth and sustainability of collegiate adaptive sports. And they help out with a lot of our marquee events, making it affordable for other colleges to come to our tournaments. We have the adaptive sport and inclusive recreation initiative, which is a grant-funded initiative in which we aimed to embed adaptive sport into K-12 public schools in Ann Arbor. We wanted to make sure that every single student in public schools learned about and participated in adaptive sport, whether they had a disability or not. I'm happy to be able to say that right now, every single sixth grader, seventh grader, and eighth grader in Ann Arbor public schools learns how to play wheelchair tennis, wheelchair basketball, goalball, and city volleyball in their general education PE class. We're expanding into some other school districts right now. We have something called the equipment loan program. One huge barrier to access for adaptive sport is the cost of equipment. It is so, so, so expensive to buy a sport chair. I'll talk about my older brother again. If he wants to play tennis, he buys some tennis shoes, he buys a racket. If I want to play tennis, I'm also going to buy that racket. But then if I want to play at an elite level, I might have to buy a $5,000 to $10,000 sport wheelchair. The cost of entry for sport is just so steep. We have an equipment loan program so that people in the community, if they don't have access to adaptive sport equipment, they can loan it out from our program. We have something called prescription to play, which is aiming to engage healthcare professionals and future healthcare professionals to increase access, awareness, and opportunity in adaptive sports because so many people can get connected to adaptive sport through their healthcare professionals. But that can't happen, obviously, unless those healthcare professionals know what parasport is and what those opportunities are. Then, of course, we have adaptive fitness and then our competitive adaptive sports. Currently, we have competitive and recreational adaptive track and field, para powerlifting, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby, and wheelchair tennis. You can go to the next slide, Yohan. This slide, I just want to talk about a couple of highlights, a couple of cool things that have happened with our program that I'm super proud of and hope that can continue. We now host on an annual basis four marquee events. Every year, we host the Wolverine Invitational, which is a wheelchair basketball tournament. Last year, we brought in 12 teams, hoping to bring in 12 teams again this year for a really fun but hectic weekend of wheelchair basketball. That's a mix between collegiate, international, and then NWBA teams. We have the Wolverine Open, which is our annual wheelchair tennis tournament. That's an all-collegiate wheelchair tennis tournament. We have the Miller Family Open, which is a fully integrated and inclusive track and field meet. It's open to all athletes with and without disabilities. We wanted to do that to really showcase that as much as parasport can have its own competitions, parasport can also be integrated with able-bodied events. Our track meet is open to everybody. Then we have the Coupe Classic, which is our wheelchair rugby tournament. This past year, we hosted the largest collegiate wheelchair basketball tournament at the Chrysler Center, which is where at Michigan, the men's and women's varsity teams compete. We brought in 3,200 spectators. I think something that's important to note is our original goal for this was 1,000 people. We were like, man, if we can get 1,000 people to come to this wheelchair basketball game, we'll be so happy. We'll be thrilled. That's amazing. But as we started talking about it, the buzz around campus just grew and grew and grew. It really showed that there's an appetite for parasport on campus. People want to see it. If given the opportunity, people will come to see it. Our student group hosted a sled hockey clinic in collaboration with Bell Tire, which is a local sled hockey team that's about 20 minutes outside of Ann Arbor. We hosted our third global sports mentorship mentee from Albania so that every year we host somebody for about three weeks from a different country so that they can learn about our program and then work on a project supporting adaptive sports when they go back home. We expanded ACERI into Dexter, Celine, and Ypsilanti school districts. Actually, currently this month, we're doing a lot of ACERI work across the schools. We started going to Mott Children's Hospital on a monthly basis so that we could make sure that kids in the hospital have access to adaptive sport and know that they can also be athletes. MedLaunch, which is a medical and engineering student group, they aim at providing solutions for problems for the disability community. They collaborated with our program on two different projects. One, to try to make sure that athletes don't overheat when they're competing, and one to hopefully increase grip strength for quad athletes. We did a lot more, but this obviously cannot happen without funding. Johan, if you'll go to the next slide. How do we pay for the things that we do? Our funding sources, I would say, come from four main places, and that's grants, gifts, base funding or the university, and then in-kind support. A lot of our initiatives are grant-funded initiatives. ACERI, we apply for grants. We hope to get those grants. If we get those grants, we're able to expand the work, but whenever we apply for a grant, we at least try to make sure that we will be able to sustain the work that we're going to do past the life of the grant so that we can continue doing the work that we're passionate about, like ACERI. We have a number of gifts that donors or companies give that provide extra support for apparel, for facility costs, for travel, for hosting events. We have our base funding through the university, and a lot of our base funding through the university, we, like I said, prioritize people. We wanted to make sure that the positions within ASF are permanent positions within the university so that if any one person leaves, the program goes on. So many programs, I think, live or die with one or two passionate individuals, and as soon as they leave the institution, the program falls apart. So we wanted to make sure that whenever we had the ability to really have a solid base of staff, we were able to support that. And then we have in-kind support. So whether that's a company donating water, Gatorade snacks to one of our hosted events or meals, but in-kind support, I also think is partnerships that we have within the institution. We partner with athletics a lot, and as much as we're not a part of athletics, we utilize a lot of the facilities that athletics uses, and that's in-kind support. That's through partnerships that we've built, relationships we've built with athletics. Our varsity adaptive athletes, they do their strength and conditioning in the same location as the varsity athletes for the University of Michigan. Our wheelchair tennis team trains out of the varsity tennis center. Our track athletes train out of the varsity track center. And this is important for two reasons. One, it keeps us from really needing to look for outside facilities to train, and it ensures that on campus, our adaptive athletes are seen as athletes, because at the end of the day, they are just athletes. They might use modified rules or equipment to participate in their sports, to compete in their sports, but at the end of the day, they have the same dreams, same goals as their able-bodied peers. So that's an in-kind support that we get through the institution as well. And then next slide, Johan. Last but not least, scholarships. How do we get students to come to Michigan, and how do they pay for their schooling? So University of Michigan is a Nielsen school, so students with traumatic spinal cord injuries are able to get the Nielsen scholarship. We have athletic scholarships through the provost, and that's for some elite athletes that really are going to be instrumental in the success of our competitive teams. And then we also have scholarships through disability funding through our SAS office. We have University of Michigan scholarships through their academics, and then we have ASF funding as well, some smaller scholarships that we can give to athletes. But that's all I have for you guys right now, and I think we can probably open up the floor for any questions that you guys might have. You're muted, Johan. Thanks for that. If you would like to ask a question, feel free to raise your hand here, and then I'll call out your names, and then you can show yourselves and introduce yourselves and ask a question. But in the meantime, my first question to you guys as a panel is, what challenges did you face when you were just starting? And I guess, Victoria, since you're Victoria, since you're the newest on the scene, can you tell us kind of some of the things you had as challenges when you were starting? And then Michigan and Bama, now that you're a running program, maybe what were some difficult things? What would you do a little bit different if you could go back to make things maybe go a little more smoothly when you first started? I guess for me, part of it was probably patience. I had been wanting to do this for probably six years at this point, but I guess our strand was even saying I was trying to lay a lot of groundwork and trying to be strategic of building up to that. So that part was annoying to me, but it obviously paid off, just being strategic. And I always joke, I kind of infiltrated and then they had to say yes. But I think some of the struggles that we were seeing in the first year is even though we know a lot of people and everything, it's still just truly working with schedules, class schedules, and getting facilities, space for practice, competing with all the other teams as everyone would imagine in athletics. At any university, there's really so much space. And so, I mean, there's just logistical things we're still trying to work through, but it's definitely one of the most, I think, frustrating things for our athletes. It's like, well, you've got to work around class, got to have work around everyone who needs this space. So I think I'm very jealous of your space that you have in Alabama, but hopefully one day. Well, and I think that that has been one of the biggest things, like that was one of the biggest things in terms of growing was, I think the other thing to answer that question first is, we have to answer that question first is, we didn't know what we didn't know, right? So we didn't know that it was audacious to just be like, we're starting a women's wheelchair basketball team and have a season that very first season, like we had no idea, right? So we just went for it and it was successful. And so that's why, again, I think, yes, it is easier to start with a small team or to start like Victoria did with like laying the groundwork. But I think at the end of the day, the most important thing is to do what makes sense to you, right? Like we didn't stop and think about any of the things, we just jumped in head first and did it. And I would say there isn't a right way other than to not do it. I think the challenge is, we faced a lot of the same challenges that Victoria talks about, right? Is that where do we fit? Like our student athletes were practicing at 5.30 in the morning because that's when the rec center would let us in. We started at Foster Auditorium and then when athletics took it over, they just kicked us out. And that's when we went to the rec center. And then when we were at the rec center, we were like, this isn't our space. And so I think one of the big things that we've learned is the more you do, the more there is to do. Yeah, and I would say that for us, one of the biggest struggles, at least from an institutional standpoint is, you know, you say you want to start an adaptive sports program and some people in the institution are like, okay, where are your adaptive athletes? And you're like, well, they're not here yet because we don't have a program yet. And then they're like, well, you don't have any athletes, so why would we support a program? And the athletes are like, well, you don't have a program, so why would I go to the University of Michigan? So, you know, much like Dr. Strand said, a lot of it just comes down to you just have to start something. You just have to show that there is an appetite for adaptive sport on your campus. And whether that is starting with a wheelchair basketball team, because that's what people want, or starting paraswimming, or starting wheelchair tennis, or starting whatever it is, find out what's going to work for your institution and just run with that. And as you start to gain traction, the institution will start to notice. And as the institution starts to notice, you begin getting more and more support. But the hardest but most important thing to do is just get that spark to start a blaze and then just go from there. And every single institution is going to be different. You've got three different institutions on this call that started in three different ways. And I think that you could have 12 different institutions on this call right now. And you would hear 12 different ways that they got started with Paris Sport. The bottom line is they did get started. So make sure that you're finding those athletes, finding ways to support them and just build brick by brick by brick until you get to a point where you can look back five years down the road, 10 years down the road and see what started as what looked like one or two athletes become University of Alabama, University of Cincinnati, University of Michigan, University of Illinois. They all started small. And don't worry about starting small. Chris, I was just going to say like when I was like trying to figure out how to start this, I had talked to a lot of our friends around the country with the college programs and literally every program had a different start. And so I feel like what both of you said was like, whatever makes sense in your city at your university, what makes sense to you, and like the climate of like if who you know also works. And that's what everyone told me they're just like, like, there's no answer that's like this is the way. Don, I see you have your hand raised, feel free to ask your question. OK, I guess I have one like ask then and then one real question after that. But thanks for, you know, it's really cool hearing from all three of you all. So my name is Donald Kassanan, I'm one of the faculty physicians at UT Southwestern and I've been covering like the UTA wheelchair basketball teams for, I think, I don't know, ever since I was a resident. So it's been like eight or nine years. I've gone to nationals with them the past couple of years. So it's been fun. Margaret, I'm sick of losing to y'all. But, you know, I guess, number one, I heard, you know, what kept being reiterated is there is just a lack of research within the adaptive sports world. And I think one of the things that I've noticed is like even just collaboration within research, because there's so little to begin with. I feel like there's not that much like inter, I guess, across different universities. So my first just ask is like whether any of y'all would be interested. And so we so I think there is there is a lot of collaboration. Oh, OK, I'm just I haven't seen that much like the publication portion yet. I know like we've been collecting data for like injury and illness among our teams for I think over the past like since twenty eighteen to twenty nineteen season. And now we have about five seasons of data. So I was wondering if anyone would be interested in if they want to like get their collegiate basketball teams on board with this, too. Maybe I'm missing and maybe some Victoria, it sounds like you. Well, well, Johan and I are actually on like the national for AMSSM. We have a huge we have a grant for a multi-site adaptive sports research where we are creating that registry for all para-athletes with injuries and like also a wellness component. And we're partnered with the IOPC as well. So maybe that's something that we could have an offline conversation about. And then also, Chris, you mentioned I'm part of the research consortium with Michigan with a lot of clinicians who are doing adaptive sports research so we can all share ideas and collaborate together. So maybe that's also a way you can join in that the consortium there. Because, yeah, the answer to easily answer. Yes, I feel like that's great. And I feel like everyone's willing, everyone's willing to collaborate, at least from my perspective, because I do a lot of adaptive sports research. At least that's my answer. Anyone can correct me if I'm wrong. But I feel like everyone I work with is very collaborative. And so, yeah, you can just join on in with us. Perfect. Great. And then I guess my other main question is, you know, I guess our setup is kind of interesting because technically most of the health care providers work at a different institution than the actual collegiate teams, just because UT Southwestern doesn't have an undergraduate. So it's a little bit different setup than the three presented. So I guess, what would y'all say learning from your experiences? What's a great way to kind of bridge that gap? And also within the adaptive sports world and trying to build a program, because it's cool because all three of y'all have different backgrounds in terms of training, like where like different backgrounds in terms of being like a physician versus being a Ph.D. versus being in different backgrounds, how that plays a role in building adaptive sports program and how like the medical services can be really integrated into that. I can I can start with that one, especially because I don't I don't have a medical background at all. You know, if anyone gets injured, do not please do not come to me. But, you know, when when we when we first started building out a program, Dr. Okunlemi, who's our director, he is a physician, but he always had the mindset of, you know, let's just let's just do the work. Let's just do the work. Let's just keep keep doing the work. Let's get as many people connected as we possibly can and just keep the ball rolling and keep the ball rolling. And that worked pretty well for us. So when it came to finding medical coverage, we would go to the medical school and say, hey, guys, we're having drop in wheelchair basketball. Do you want to come try it out? Do you want to come meet our athletes? Hey, we've got wheelchair tennis practice. Do you want to come, you know, at least meet some of the athletes, provide medical coverage? And that that worked out really well. And that that worked for the medical side. Right. But if you are building a program, I think one thing that's important to know is like you need the medical side of it, but then you also need the programmatic side. You need the coaching side. So trying to find within that institution a group of people, whether they're students, whether they're faculty, whether they're external to the institution that can support the coaching, that can support the research, that can support the medical side. And for our medical side, it started just with us getting connected to our future medical students, our current medical students, Dr. Johan, who was our physician for a while, but also our wheelchair tennis coach. And just seeing who is passionate about adaptive sports and getting them connected in whatever way makes make sense. I'll add, since I was there with Dr. when the program was literally just pick up basketball once a month, I think it was a little serendipitous that his department of family medicine was also very on board with his mission of like trying to start some adaptive sports. So even though they weren't given a ton of resources, they were still giving some resources so that we could at least have a pickup. And so that was just the start was like they talked to the chair, the family medicine chair was like, yeah, I want to support this endeavor. And he gave a little bit of funding so we can just get some chairs, you know, so that made a big difference. We're like, oh, we have some basic equipment and then it's up to us to then run stuff and and create programming and all that. But it was at least from the physician side, I think it was kind of helpful being able to talk to a department chair who believes in the mission essentially so that Dr. can get that initial funding. That was the start of creating a true program where now there's tons of different ways Michigan gets funding and tons of people who actually work full time in the program versus us. I remember taking call and having my pager with me while we were doing pickup basketball and then I'd be answering pages, then getting back in my chair and going to play and all that type of stuff. So. So, yeah, from humble beginnings, I think it was a small ask and then find the passion to to do this during off hours. Honestly, like, you know, it wasn't something you can just do during normal working hours. So it was a little bit tough. But once the thing the ball gets rolling, it gets a little bit easier. Yeah, from like the physician side to answer, like, obviously, I'm not a coach. I know Johan even spent time coaching, obviously, Margaret. I mean, I'm not a coach. I am a physician and I'm an engineer and I have no business background at all. However, I dove in because I like I said, I started a nonprofit. So that experience had helped me understand from like starting a book because I'm one of the co-founders for the program of like strategic planning, sustainability planning, job descriptions, writing those types of things like you obviously pitch, giving pitch and presentations and things like that. So I had to learn a lot of business stuff, which never thought I would ever learn in my life. But here we are. So I would say like from that perspective, that helped me a lot because I did it like in the nonprofit world and helped kind of transition into the academic university of being able to present like this type of program. But then I would say like finding all the right people to work with you, like I obviously found someone who is a coach and is willing to be the program director and is a Paralympian. So that's like really convenient. But yeah, I think like just surrounding myself with people who have different strengths, but also that are just willing to work. I mean, like Johan said, all of us work on this after hours and just push through until we got it going. So I think that's the right team. All right, so we have a question in the chat from Holly, and so her question is, what are the top two areas of research that have the greatest opportunity for impact with the need for research across the board? Which areas need to be focused on first? Well, I think that's a really hard question, but I know for us right now in Alabama, we're focusing a lot on concussion research just because that's such a big issue and there isn't anything like the concussion protocols. They don't work for adapted athletes. The ones that are made for adults, they don't work for adults. They don't work for adapted athletes, the ones that are made for able-bodied athletes. And so really trying to create those and validate them and do that. So that's again, I don't know that that's like what it should be focused on first. I just know that that's an area that we're looking at. And then I mentioned a little bit like the recovery piece. That's a big one that we're still working on. I'm a partner with the Department of Kinesiology and are working on collecting that data to figure out like recovery. But I don't know that those are the, they need to be focused on first, but that's where we are. So I'll let other people talk to you about what they think. I mean, I would agree with that. But I'm just like Donald, you were saying like, right, like there, I feel like a lot of people are doing different projects. And I think not until within the last year, a lot of the collaboration, that's for how you're on. I'm working on the project. A lot of our research right now is literally just getting the data, right? Like survey, like surveillance, right? And just like understanding what are the types of injuries that are happening? Because a lot of the research that's out there is more just the Paralympic athletes because they keep track, obviously the injuries during the games. But we're literally just trying to understand information of like across the country, para-athletes at any level, whether it's recreational, collegiate or professional, like what are their injuries and how is this affecting them also has affected their mental health. That's like what we're all trying to work on, on the big project because we don't even have that basic level of information, which is crazy. And then something that like I'm working on, I don't think it's the next most important thing, but it's just my, what I like is biomechanics because I work with like designing equipment. And so I'm trying to understand how we can design equipment better to prevent injury. So if anyone wants to jump on that, please, please help. But that's just my area of interest. Yeah, I would agree that that's a, that's a tough question. You know, especially when you're asking what are, what are two areas of research that have the greatest opportunity for impact? I guess that depends on who you ask. If you ask a doctor, it's probably going to be injury prevention and recovery. If you ask somebody who's on the business side of it, they might be looking at program sustainability and researching funding sources. So it's all going to depend on the angle that you're looking at when it comes to research. And again, I would say that what's important right now is just across the board. If you look at every single area of adaptive sport, there is a lack of research point blank period. So any research that's, that's a lie. I was going to say any research is good research. If it's like, if it's literally bad research, it's probably bad research, but doing any research and trying to collect the data and trying to get, you know, good, good adaptive sports research out there is going to help programs is going to help Paris sport is going to be collective, collective good. Kind of bouncing off of, you know, research, you know, obviously to be able to do research, you need funding, you need money. And of course, to run a program, you also need a lot of that as well. So I was wondering if you guys can kind of maybe go into a little bit more detail about your funding sources, like how did you find grants, things like that, so that maybe other people who are interested in maybe creating their own program, they at least have a jumping board or where to look for things. I guess I can jump in first, unless you want to go, Victoria. I was going to say, because mine's not as complex yet as you are, but like I said, we just got like seed funding from an internal grant at University of Cincinnati we had applied for. And then after that, we were able to start working with, like, most universities have like a foundation. And then we partner with, I don't know if this is a conflict of interest, but it's fine. We partner with a bunch of different organizations, and we partner with a bunch of different organizations. And then we partner with, I don't know if this is a conflict of interest, but it's fine. We partner with a bunch of different organizations, and we partner with a bunch of different organizations. And then we partner with a bunch of different organizations, and we partner with a bunch of different organizations. I don't know if this is a conflict of interest, but it's fine. We partner with my like nonprofit. So like my nonprofit will do a lot of grants for equipment and then donate it to UC Adaptive Sports Program. So that's how mine intermixes, but it will get more complicated, obviously, as both Chris and Margaret has shared. I mean, I don't think it really gets more complicated. Like it's just, what can you do? So I write the grants, most of the grants for the program. We partner with our corporate and foundation relations in advancement. We try and get donors. Voc Rehab, obviously, is a big one. Chris talked about the different scholarships. You know, if we can get our students to get an academic scholarship, we might fill in. And we get a certain amount from the university, and we get to decide where to spend that. So excuse me, if we can bring in more money for this or in-kind sponsorships for this, then we don't have to pay that. So then we can use it for more scholarships. So it's really, it's moving the pieces of the puzzle to cover all of the things. But the sources kind of stay the same. It's just trying to get more of them, more donations, more in-kind support, more grants, more funding from the university, you know. And also, I did mention, we are, I didn't mention this, we're a Nielsen Scholars Program as well. And so that helps immensely. Yeah, and that remains pretty similar for Michigan. You know, as you start to do more and more things, things become more and more expensive, and you need more sources of funding, and you just need more money altogether. One thing that we found with grants in particular is with grants, when it comes to funding, having the flexibility to use money for what you need on a day-to-day basis becomes pretty important. And depending on what that funding source is, you might not always have complete flexibility to do whatever you want with that funding. And I would say, especially when it comes to grants, there might be some line items that you absolutely have to use that money for, and you can't move the money around as much. Or if you have a donor, and the donor is like, we want you to spend $10,000 on t-shirts. You got to spend $10,000 on t-shirts. And you might be thinking, I don't need to spend $10,000 on t-shirts. So one, finding the money, but also finding the right kinds of money that you can use in the correct ways for your program. One huge grant that we ended up getting was through the Michigan Health Endowment Fund to expand ACERI. And that ended up being something that we were able to use for a lot of different aspects of our program, because a lot of the funding that we got from that was for equipment, because we needed the equipment to do the school-based initiative. But then when we have that equipment, then we can expand into other schools, and we can do drop-in programming, and we can support a lot of other things through the equipment without having to use the money in a way that we were never supposed to use the money. So it's finding unique ways that you can use grants to support multiple things, while still making sure that you are upholding kind of the values and what you said you were going to do in that grant. Uh-huh. And I see, Selena, you have your hand raised. Feel free to ask your question. Hi, guys. Thank you so much for the talk tonight. This has been awesome. Um, I am super interested in doing research, doing specifically kind of... I guess this is going back to our original talk. We've gotten back off of the grants again. But doing stuff with, like, shoulder prevention, shoulder injury prevention, anything in that regard that I can get into. So if you guys have advice... I'm a fourth-year resident right now, going to fellowship in a VA, and I think I talked with my program director about doing kind of just data collection and that side of things for current injury stats. But if your giant study is already kind of superseding all of that, maybe that's not the most appropriate. So if you guys have any, like, recommendations or ideas for how I can get my interest going, I'd appreciate it. Well, this isn't specifically to what you're researching, but one of the things that we do at Alabama is we... I don't know if you've ever seen the motorized wheelchair attachments, but we have our athletes use those. I've written a bunch of grants for those. I have about 16 of them now. And so that's how they get around campus. And that has been... So this last year, we got a grant, and we've had a lot fewer issues with shoulder issues, even bicep tendonitis, elbow issues, wrist issues. And so, especially for athletes who are already so active, and especially for our athletes who are daycare users as well, that's been a big impact. And we haven't done, like, research in terms of, like, treating those issues. In terms of, like, true research, it's just been what our AT has seen across the season. But if that was something you were interested in doing, like, real research on that, we could certainly talk, because we have a control group and a non-control group, right? Our folks who use the attachments versus our folks who don't. And is there a difference in those? So we can talk offline if you want. Okay, thank you. Victoria, do you have any suggestions for a budding researcher how to get involved with getting started with research? I would say to like maybe try to join the consortium as well because then you can see like what everyone's kind of working on because I think in those meetings like we'll just like kind of talk about what we're doing and if again like the cross collaboration is really important so I think that would be a good like next step. I know it's probably a little tricky too with like if your fellowship how long your fellowship is if like I feel like it's hard right if you're like starting for a year and then you're gonna have to move I don't know the situation if you have to move again or like go to a new university or something like that so maybe like like working like that that'd be an amazing project by the way that's really cool for the Alabama athletes getting the wheelchair assists that would be really cool but I think even on the consortium so at least you like know what's going on and can kind of get your feet wet so then when you are finished with fellowship it might be easier to start I think that's a good next step for sure and I know you've talked to me and Johan in general so we can always keep talking about that stuff. Thank you. So you know we talked a lot about you know starting the program and funding the programs and doing research one thing I think we haven't talked about are just the student athletes themselves so is there you know having started this program what have you noticed about maybe the culture at the university you know from when it was you know just starting out versus now that it's a big much bigger thing especially for Bama and Michigan and then how has it impacted you know your student athletes lives like how do they feel about the program how much do they enjoy it all that type of stuff if you only have a couple more minutes left just wanted to kind of end a little bit with just knowing what's what it's like for the student athlete perspective. So when I came to Alabama I was literally the only wheelchair user on campus and now we have over we have almost 40 athletes and so what's changed is both the physical accessibility of campus but the cultural inclusivity and I had no idea it would be like that and it's been amazing to see that transformation you know people used to ask me all the time do you need help you know blah blah blah let me pray for you blah blah blah and now when they see our athletes they ask them oh what sport do you play right I mean it has been a complete cultural shift I had no idea it would be like that I work on a couple of committees to improve accessibility on campus it's it has been phenomenal and I had no idea and that has been so so powerful and and so the students they're welcome in a way that I wasn't welcomed right and and so the transformation has been incredibly powerful and you know in some ways it's bigger than what we do with sport right because we're changing the culture we're changing expectations we're changing how people perceive folks with disabilities and that is incredibly powerful and life-changing on so many different levels. I think that that was a impeccable answer and very very similar to to University of Michigan you know we we started with six athletes we're not quite to 40 student athletes but hopefully we're you know we're building up we're getting there when I think about kind of the the adaptive athlete experience at Michigan one one story really kind of stands out to me and it was when we hosted our wheelchair basketball game against Michigan State at Chrysler you know we've been doing the school-based initiative now in Ann Arbor Public Schools for three we're going into our fourth year so we've had quite a few students go through the ACRE curriculum where they're learning to play wheelchair basketball wheelchair tennis goalball city volleyball in their general education PE class so a lot of the students that have gone through the ACRE curriculum came to the wheelchair basketball program so you had students with disabilities students without disabilities all all watching something that they participated in class and they just watched it as a sport it wasn't a special sport it wasn't a different sport because the way we introduce adaptive sport to these students is it's just the modification of rules or equipment that allows for equitable participation that's all that's all adaptive sport is that's all parasport is it's just another way to play sport if you want to play ice hockey you put on ice skates if you want to play wheelchair basketball you get in a sport chair and that's how we introduce it to them so that's how they how they see it and after the game was done you had all these kids just rush the court afterwards and they were going up to all of their athletes and they're like oh my gosh oh my gosh you're so good I saw that three like oh my gosh you're such an amazing athlete can I have your autograph can I have your autograph can you sign my rally towel can you sign my poster and it truly just was an athletic event that people enjoyed going to and that's that's all that's all that it was and that's all that it it should be it's just sport we've we've all had a moment in sport that have like touched us and everybody deserves to have that moment and I think that as more and more of these programs expand as more of these opportunities come up more experiences like that are going to happen and it's just going to normalize it's going to normalize sport well I love both of those answers I was honestly just like a year what I've even noticed is very similar to what you guys both said but like what I've even loved is like we only had six athletes to start but we've it's kind of created this home on campus because there's been other other students with disabilities who now see other people like them right and they've kind of found each other and have like their own little group where they can just hang out and get coffee and be able to experience that life together but then it's also been really cool even like as we've recruited for our next coming year like there's already this family and then they're already like these students who are assigned to come with us are just already joined onto this family and I think that's my favorite part is just to see that grow and and like it's almost irrelevant right to sports sports what brought everyone together but then it keeps bringing more and more people on campus and I think that's my favorite part to watch. I think that was a perfect way to to end the session. I want to thank first you know all the panelists Chris, Dr. Strand, Victoria thank you very much for sharing your experiences your programs and I hope it inspired everyone who's who was here and anyone who's going to watch this in the future for those attendings that are watching this as a recorded video please feel free to email any of us if you have any further questions about anything whether it be about starting a program or just adaptive sports in general we're happy to help out and I also want to thank AAP Menard for just allowing us to have the space to have this conversation we really appreciate it. Thank you everyone have a good rest of your night and take care.

adaptive sports programs

university development

Dr. Victoria Heasley

Dr. Margaret Strand

Christopher Kelly

institutional collaboration

cultural shifts

community engagement

program sustainability

inclusive campuses

student-athletes with disabilities