Adaptive sports come to Vail as local group works to fight the stigma

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — For the last week, all physical education students at Old Vail Middle School have been playing wheelchair sports.

Its an effort made, in part, by Southern Arizona Adaptive Sports, a nonprofit that helps shed a new light on adaptive athletics.

"We love to come out to any school that will have us so that we can introduce the students to adaptive sports and kind of change societal norms, change societal perceptions of disability," says Karl Yares, the director of basketball operations.

They were at Old Vail Middle School because of one of their players.

"We got to come to Vail as a result of Estevan, one of our athletes on the junior Wildcats, our wheelchair basketball team for the youth in Tucson," says Yares.

The sports played this week were wheelchair basketball and rugby.

Estevan Carrion is a 6th grader at Old Vail and he says that Yares and the group coming to his school gives him the chance to show his classmates what he can do.

“That they could see what I do when I'm not in school, and that they can join as well if they want,” says Carrion.

Southern Arizona Adaptive Sports is open to anyone. More information can be found on its website.