As Indiana men’s and women’s basketball teams are beginning their seasons in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, another IU basketball team is beginning their season in the School of Public Health.

IU’s wheelchair basketball team is an adapted sports team that provides an inclusive environment for those who need mobility aids, such as wheelchairs, to participate in competitive sports. It is the only adapted sports team on campus.

Janayah Williams, a player on the team, was born with spina bifida, a spinal condition that left the bottom half of her body almost entirely paralyzed. She uses a wheelchair in her daily life. Adapted sports teams like this one bring her one step closer to her dreams.

“My dream is to play professionally, but we’ll see how that goes,” Williams said. “But I can’t wait for next semester to compete because that’s what I’m hoping right now, is to compete.”

There are few opportunities for Williams to play basketball outside of summer camps. Basketball is her passion, and she said she’s excited she can play sports like her siblings.

“It’s fun,” Williams said. “It’s really fun.”

But not all team members use daily mobility devices. Daisey Smith, club president, was a junior studying recreational therapy when she found the wheelchair basketball team “purely by chance.” 

She said the emphasis on adapted sports, disability, and inclusion on campus was especially interesting to her during her undergraduate career. Now, she’s a master’s student and still involved with the team.

“You don’t have to have a disability,” Smith said. “I think that’s a big misconception for our club.”

Smith said that even though wheelchair basketball is a well-established recreation sport at IU, some still don’t understand the team’s mission.

“A lot of people, even within the club sports federation, have that misconception still, or assume that there’s barriers that aren’t always there,” Smith said. “Sometimes the barriers are constructed just by opinions.”

Many players on the team have never sat in a chair until their first practice. The team invites all skill levels and even non-students.

“We do a lot of community reintegration, so not everyone on our team is a student,” Smith said. “We have a couple of members that are homeschooled or veterans. So there’s a lot of community opportunities and opportunities and connections that we do.”

Community members like Jack Stanfield, the team’s coach, who is also a player on the team.

“They had a flyer up at the VA and I came down the very first day this program started five years ago,” Stanfield said.

Stanfield is a veteran who shattered both kneecaps in combat. He got introduced to adaptive sports in 2016 and competed in the 2016 Department of Defense Warrior Games. Besides basketball, he participates in sitting volleyball, swimming, and field events, and won the bronze medal in cycling at the Warrior Games.

“It’s the cohesion, the gathering, having somebody understand that there’s something else out there that we can do,” Stanfield said. “And it’s also making awareness for the campus that we need accessibility for anybody in wheelchairs.”

Before the pandemic, Stanfield would take the team to compete with other wheelchair basketball teams. He said that playing against professional teams puts things in perspective.

“It was actually an eye-opener, to let the club realize that we’re not just here playing street ball,” Stanfield said. “You’re going with guys that do it for a living. So it was giving us the chance to see real live-action, full-court basketball versus playing in a little gym on campus.”

Competitions of adapted sports are becoming more popular, which Stanfield hopes changes the stigma around disability.

“You may have a family member or a friend that is confined to a chair, that there is something out there for them that they can do,” Stanfield said.

Not only does Stanfield want to change the stigma around disability, but also around campus accessibility.

“And then it also opens a community and a campus that, hey, we need to do something for the guys that need wheelchair access,” Stanfield said. 

The conversation around adapted sports is changing with the wheelchair basketball team. They’re hoping that they encourage other adapted sports like sitting volleyball, wheelchair rugby, and wheelchair fencing to find homes on campus.

The team is planning to start traveling to compete against other teams in the spring. This will be the team’s first time competing since before the pandemic.