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Merging Recreation and Accessibility -

Bankshot Sports brings Inclusion, Integration, and Socialization to Sports.

The defining words: INCLUSION - INTEGRATION - SOCIALIZATION - now codified into the law of the land resonated as a constant refrain at the Health and Human Services event launching President Bush's new program, Physical Fitness for Children with Disabilities. Recently, HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson and Dr. Margaret Giannini, director of the HHS Office on Disability launched President Bush's "No Child Left Behind" initiative. Led by the Surgeon General Richard Carmona, the event brought together over 50 distinguished disability agencies, including the National Association for Recreational Equality (NARE - "Let's Play Fair") as participants in the Department of Health and Human Services event.

NARE, the sponsor of the Bankshot Sports program, received the coveted "Spirit of the ADA" Award (for "The elimination of discrimination against individuals with disabilities and the achievement of equal access and participation to all persons"). All Bankshot Sports - Bankshot Basketball, Bankshot Tennis, Bankshot Soccer, Bankshot Pitch and Throw - are sports that establish level playing fields that achieve INCLUSION, INTEGRATION, AND SOCIALIZATION, not merely access up to the perimeter of a ball field

The Bankshot philosophy for fairness in play lies within the words "Total-Mix Sports Based on Universal Design." Dr. Reeve Brenner, NARE founder and creator of Bankshot Sports, spoke of the unfortunate continuous emphasis on aggression exclusionary ball playing sports...and that the Bush initiative "Leave No Child Left Behind" seeks to change the "separate but unequal" segregation of disabled persons in the world of recreation, sports and play. Rabbi Reeve Brenner serves as Jewish Chaplain of the NIH.

NARE's educational materials include a paragraph from a speech by Dr. Brenner pointing out that, "When a disabled wheelchair user outgrows the 'creepy crawly climbing playground' at about age 5 or 6, and friends begin to play ball and he or she would like to play ball as well alongside friends, freely - not in prearranged, pre-organized, supervised games that are separate and therefore unequal. He or she can roll up to sports (such as baseball, basketball, soccer, tennis - indeed all ball playing sports requiring offense and defense) - but no further. Therefore no participation...a spectator again. What is the solution? The answer lies in new ball playing sports where participants play alongside and not against each other. Skill and strategy, not strength, stamina, size or gender, determine players' progress in an inclusionary sport. Players try to outdo their personal best rather than each other. They 'play the court' instead of one another. Participants play companionably, not aggressively.

Remember that according to President Bush's new initiatives, the law requires that disabled individuals be provided not merely with access ramps up to the perimeter of a ball playing sports court, but that INTEGRATION, SOCIALIZATION and INCLUSION be provided, as in Bankshot Sports.

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