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Three years in the making.
The wait was over.
The highly-anticipated
CUNY Wheelchair Basketball
Team made its longawaited
debut with its first
organized team practice
at “The Swamp” at Hostos
Community College in the
Bronx on Saturday afternoon.
In front of a fantastic
turnout, the prospective
CUNY student-athletes
took part in shooting drills
and 5-on-5 scrimmages, led
by the team’s head coach
Ryan Martin. “It’s just been
an awesome process to see
what’s possible for the prospective
student-athletes
in CUNY,” Martin said.
“We will start with practices
and continue to farm
out where our current students
with disabilities want
future programming. We
have 25 campuses and over
4,000 students with mobility
impairment. And, to be
able to address the needs at
various different campuses
is going to be the challenge,
but it is a great opportunity.
It is a tremendous credit to
CUNY’s commitment to universal
design.” Martin also
described: “Wheelchair basketball
has the opportunity
to be a transformative experience
in adaptive sports. We
want to offer that opportunity
for prospective studentathletes
to use it as a vehicle
for greater success. We want
to see them go through our
CUNY LEADS program,
become employed and set
that bar that we expect to
set for our student-athletes.
We are in the higher education
space and that’s what
this needs to be about, ultimately.”
The practice came
just over a full year after
CUNY hosted its first-ever
wheelchair basketball clinic
last August at Hostos, as an
effort to recruit and gauge
interest in the team. “I am
very pleased with how it
all has come together, with
the three clinics that we
have done in three different
boroughs at three different
CUNY schools, and
then bringing Ryan (Martin)
aboard has been the
game-changer,” CUNYAC
Executive Director Zak
Ivkovic exclaimed. “Ryan’s
vision takes us to another
level. He wants to build a
team that can be successful
right away. He is pushing
us in all of the right directions.
This partnership has
been phenomenal for us.”
Destini Mitchell-Murray,
a recent Hostos graduate
and advocator for a CUNY
adaptive sports program,
expressed her excitement:
“I am happy that my voice
was heard. We (at CUNY)
have a lot of students that
are disabled, and you do not
need to be disabled to play
an adaptive sport. I am excited
to see where it goes
from here.” Last May, the
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, S 60 EPTEMBER 6-12, 2019 BTR
CUNY Athletic Conference
announced the formation of
a varsity wheelchair basketball
team — the first-ever of
its kind on the Eastern seaboard.
Until that point, the
closest varsity collegiate
program in the East had
resided at Edinboro University
in Western Pennsylvania.
Additionally, Martin
partnered with PER4MAX
and U.S. Paralympics to donate
10 high-performance
wheelchairs to the cause
(worth up to $50,000). “It’s
hard to capture what a remarkable
day this has been.
We mapped this out as a
blueprint, and to see it bear
fruit today, is very exciting.
It’s hard to believe that this
is really happening, but it
is,” said CUNY Vice Chancellor
for Student Inclusion
Initiatives Christopher
Rosa. “Our goal is to build
a foundation for a sustainable
high-level competitive
inclusive athletics program,
starting with wheelchair
basketball. Today was an
important first step of letting
the New York City and
greater Metropolitan area
community of wheelchair
athletes know that we are
here and inclusive sports is
open for business at CUNY.
We are committed to recruiting
the highest quality
wheelchair student-athletes
to follow their dreams
at CUNY and to serve as a
rallying port for our community
of students with
disabilities.” The goal of
CUNY’s Inclusive and Adaptive
Sports platform is to engage
student-athletes with
disabilities in four sports
-- basketball, track and field,
swimming and tennis -- as a
collegiate model for its University’s
campuses to adopt.
About The City University
of New The City University
of New York is the
nation’s leading urban public
university. Founded in
1847, CUNY counts 13 Nobel
Prize and 24 MacArthur
(“Genius”) grant winners
among its alumni. CUNY
students, alumni and faculty
have garnered scores
of other prestigious honors
over the years in recognition
of historic contributions
to the advancement
of the sciences, business,
the arts and myriad other
fields. The University comprises
25 institutions: 11
senior colleges, seven community
colleges, William
E. Macaulay Honors College
at CUNY, CUNY Graduate
Center, Craig Newmark
Graduate School of Journalism
at CUNY, CUNY School
of Labor and Urban Studies,
CUNY School of Law, CUNY
School of Professional Studies
and CUNY Graduate
School of Public Health
and Health Policy. The University
serves more than
275,000 degree-seeking students.
CUNY offers online
baccalaureate and master’s
degrees through the School
of Professional Studies.
About Hostos Community
College Eugenio María
de Hostos Community College
is an educational agent
for change that has been
transforming and improving
the quality of life in the
South Bronx and neighboring
communities for over
half a century. Since 1968,
Hostos has been a gateway
to intellectual growth and
socioeconomic mobility, as
well as a point of departure
for lifelong learning, success
in professional careers,
and transfer to advanced
higher education programs.
Hostos offers 27 associate
degree programs and
two certificate programs
that facilitate secure transfer
to The City University
of New York’s (CUNY) fouryear
colleges or baccalaureate
studies at other institutions.
The College has an
award-winning Division
of Continuing Education
& Workforce Development
that offers professional development
courses and certificate
bearing workforce
training programs. Hostos
is part of CUNY, the nation’s
leading urban public university,
which serves more
than 500,000 students at 25
colleges.
Media contact - Rich
Pietras: rpietras@hostos.
cuny.edu
/cuny.edu
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