Good Sport Nation is nearing 1000 hours of Athlete and Peer Coach participation. #inclusivesports
New Yorker of the Week Award
Thank you to NY1 for its “New Yorker of the Week Award” and for recognizing the importance of inclusive sports programs.
We’re very grateful to our special needs athletes and their families, Peer Coaches and our partners for all that they do to make the program so special.
October 14, 2019
Fall Good Sport Nation: Thank you to the Families
Another great fall event with several special guests–from Team Prime Time and NY1!
As always, the most important people there are participants: our Athletes and Peer Coaches. Each participant brings enthusiasm and love of the game. Thank you to our partners and the families that make sacrifices to make sure that their athletes are able to play.
Special thanks to our multiple season returners (many of you!).
Here are some practice and warm-up pictures. We will get the game pictures out soon..
We can’t wait for the winter program to begin!
We're Constantly Learning
Every time we talk to families of our special needs athletes we learn something new: what is working, how to make the program better with schedules or drills, what they would like to see for the next season, etc.
Through them we recently learned about some new, potential partners (local and nation). I’ve talked to or met with two already and its promising — and 100% due to the great families that we have.
Thank you for everything that you do.
The Peer:Pair Model Makes the Good Sport Nation Prime Time Games Work
One challenge in creating a free-flowing basketball game that combines special needs athletes and non-special needs athletes is the wide range of playing ability. Some Athletes bring great experience and skills and others enter with more limited abilities (but still energy!).
To address this we use a Peer: Pair model that was pioneered at Team Prime Time (Prime Time Games). Amongst other things the Peer:Pair model is set up to allow each Athlete to play up to his/her level of ability. It also simplifies training by keeping it centered on the on-court coaching and guidance (from Peer Coaches). Athletes focus on drills, skill and then games — less on rules and setup.
Good Sport Nation Returns
We’re excited for the fall Good Sport Nation program! We’ve always been lucky to have so many returning Peer Coaches and Athletes.
This fall we’re also focused on introducing new families and new schools into our inclusive sports league — and our new location: Regis High School.
Autism Awareness Month
In recognition of Autism Awareness Month, here is a great article for understanding autism.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/22/lens/visualizing-life-with-autism.html
David
When the athletes were shooting around for the first time I immediately noticed a kid making every shot from far out of three point range. His name is David Cruz.
After watching his sharp-shooting, I decided to challenge myself and play a one on one game with him. Not surprisingly he beat me, and throughout the game he made tough shots. He wasn’t any easier on other defenders.
He played every week of the Good Sport Nation program. We share the love of sports and competing — and many Athletes and Peer Coaches do — and now we’re close friends.
Chemistry
When our Peer Coaches first met the Special Needs athletes (“Athletes”) there was a quick chemistry between them. It was amazing to see. For some athletes and Peer Coaches it took a little longer, which is what we expected.
A few of Athletes were great basketball players, and several were most new. That’s one of the benefits of the Peer:Pair model, which we learned from Team Prime Time: everyone plays up to their ability.
We had two great head coaches, Derek and Peter, who lead the exercises. The peer coaches started initiating two on two and three on three games with the athletes, sparking an intense, competitive pickup game. In no time, we the Peer Coaches were essentially in the flow of the game.
Peer Coaches!
Peer Coaches pair with special needs athletes to ensure that games are fluid and that every participant at any level (novice to expert) is participating to their maximum capability. Peer Coaches are specially trained for the custom rules that we use, and which were developed by our partner Team Prime Time. (and then customized by us).
At the start of training, we met many new Good Sport Nation participants, and like most new programs we spent time getting to know eachother an talking about our core goal: “Everyone Plays.” Those new faces soon became fully trained Peer Coaches who understood the rules of our games and how to work with a range of game situations.
We are grateful to our partner, Prime Time commissioner Pete Straus. We practiced in game scenarios as well as passing and shooting drills. I noticed how much excitement there was within the Peer Coaches to get out there and compete alongside the athletes.
It was great to bond with the other peer coaches and get to know the people who would be my teammates in the coming weeks!
