Chicago Is Making Sports More Accessible

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**Sasha-Ann Simons** (0:34)
Hey Chicago, I'm Sasha-Ann Simons, and this is In the Loop.
Before we get to our conversation about the power of adaptive sports and how you can get involved, I wanna remind you that you can hear a rundown of the latest stories happening here in the Chicago area at the very end of this podcast. Now let's turn to the conversation you clicked on.
This week, a group of Chicago area adaptive athletes is heading to Grand Rapids, Michigan to compete on one of the biggest stages in disability sports. The Hartford Nationals brings together competitors from across the country in events like swimming, track and field, and wheelchair tennis. Adaptive sports are all about making competition accessible by modifying rules or equipment for athletes with different abilities. So what keeps athletes coming back? How can more Chicagoans with disabilities get involved? In this episode of the pod, we'll ask a panel of adaptive sports veterans. At the table with me was George Alfaro, coach of the Chicago Hornets, a wheelchair basketball team, Dylan Sams, who's a sports coordinator for the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab, and Larry Labiak, who's a disability policy officer for the Chicago Park District. Now, for those who might be unfamiliar, Dylan started us off with more details on adaptive sports. Here he is.

**Dylan Sams** (1:54)
Adaptive sports are everywhere, whether that's swimming, there's wheelchair rugby, sled hockey, bocce ball, the list just keeps going and going. So there's so many different opportunities.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (2:04)
Larry, how would you say adaptive sports in Chicago has evolved over the years?

**Larry Labiak** (2:10)
Oh, immensely, immensely. Shirley Ryan AbilityLab began an adaptive sports program more than 40 years ago. That time called the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, renamed in 2017, and they started with wheelchair basketball and wheelchair softball.
I was fortunate to play on one of those teams. The gentleman that started the adaptive sports was someone I had played wheelchair basketball with in college at the University of Illinois in Urbana, and he evolved, we evolved in the past 40 years from those grass roots to today, hosting multiple years of adaptive sports, regional and national tournaments.

**Jorge Alfaro** (2:54)
Wow.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (2:55)
George, your story was captivating. I mean, a gunshot wound when you were a child is what left you unable to walk.

**Jorge Alfaro** (3:03)
Correct. 10 years old.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (3:04)
10 years old. How did you get your start then with playing wheelchair basketball?

**Jorge Alfaro** (3:09)
Wow. Like Larry said, I've evolved as well.
The time when those programs were starting 40 years ago is almost about the time when I started playing sports. I actually met Larry and my mentor with Shirley Ryan, which was RIC at that time. And actually, I started competing in sports at the age of 14
So, for four years, I did not know adaptive sports existed. It wasn't as popular as it is today or accessible. So, yeah, when I finally was introduced to it at 14, my God, did my life change. Yeah.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (3:44)
Tell me more about that because you, for those years in between, you weren't doing much as far as you said it was sort of a leap to go from, you know, just kind of getting used to this new disability to just immersing yourself in a sport. Yeah.

**Jorge Alfaro** (4:01)
When my injury happened, the only thing I was seeing my life is a kid with a disability and the challenges. As soon as I was introduced to adaptive sports, I saw my lifestyle change, evolve. I started seeing other kids with my disabilities, just like I, competing, having fun, commiserating, socializing, getting out there. It was more than just a sport. It was a way of life. And now you're a coach. Now I coach.
I play softball still, but I coach basketball.

**Larry Labiak** (4:32)
So they say.

**Jorge Alfaro** (4:33)
So I've turned it around. I was coached under Larry Labiak, and now I actually had the luxury and the honor to coach Larry as well in wheelchair softball.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (4:45)
Look at that. Look how the table's turned.

**Jorge Alfaro** (4:48)
You passed the torch over to me. Larry, can you believe it?

**Mitchell Armantrout** (4:51)
He actually trusted me.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (4:53)
How is it that you bring your own experiences, though, when you're mentoring some of those players on the team?