After spending almost two hours zipping around the basketball court in a sports wheelchair, LaShonda King said she gained a new respect for people who use wheelchairs.
Although the kinesiology graduate student is able-bodied, she said she was interested in taking the class because she liked the challenge of trying a sport she enjoys while in a wheelchair.
"It took me out of my comfort zone," King said.
King is one of about nine students taking Kinesiology 108A, Wheelchair Basketball.
The class, which is being offered for the first time this year, is scheduled every Wednesday from 4:10-6 p.m. and gives both students with disabilities and those who are able-bodied the chance to play basketball in wheelchairs.
The program is a collaboration between the MSU Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities, the Department of Kinesiology and Tony Filippis Sr., co-founder of Wright & Filippis, a company that supplies wheelchairs, medical supplies and other adaptive equipment for persons with disabilities.
Filippis, 89, said he wanted to get a program for wheelchair basketball at a university for years. John Pedraza, MSU disability resource coordinator for employees and psychiatric disabilities specialist, helped organize the class and said the sport is important for people who use wheelchairs.
"They see that they can be successful in life and in athletics even though they may be a chair-user or have a disability," Pedraza said. "It helps with self-esteem and helps them see the potential they have."
Deborah Feltz, kinesiology chairwoman, said she hopes students who use wheelchairs can find time to take the class.
"Having this class was important as a part of our mission to have classes that are accessible to all students," Feltz said.
Filippis donated funding and sport wheelchairs, which he said are more adapted for the game than regular wheelchairs. Wheelchairs are provided for those who need them without an extra cost to the course.
"They're more lightweight and the backs are lower so you can lean back," Filippis said. "The wheels are slanted so you can roll the ball up the sides and they're cambered so you can turn faster without tipping over."
Filippis said he believes the program is the first of its kind at a university in Michigan.
"This is a tremendous thing MSU is doing," Filippis said. "It's going to be the start of something big."
Filippis and the class coordinator, kinesiology Professor Gail Dummer, said they want to expand outside of one class.
"We would like to see it continue to grow," Dummer said. "Our ultimate goal is to start a wheelchair basketball team."
Filippis, who wears prosthetic legs, said he hopes the class can help students with disabilities feel more included in other activities besides sports.
"These people aren't disabled," Filippis said. "It's society that makes them feel like they are. They're branded as disabled and that's baloney.
"We need more programs like this, not just sports programs."
Although a majority of the students in the class are not physically disabled, the class instructor, Jerry Sarasin, who is in a wheelchair, said he thinks the class can help students who are able-bodied.
"It's a chance for them to try a sport they might not have the chance to try," Sarasin said. "They take it and see how challenging it really is."
Feltz said she hopes the sport can help able-bodied people and spark a curiosity in the sport as a whole.
"If they have never played a sport from the chair before, it's a new challenge," Feltz said. "I hope that it adds to their interest in watching wheelchair basketball and their being supportive of it."
