by Ethan Linsky

Ever since I can remember, I have always loved sports. The magnitude of love for sport has not dwindled one bit as I try to continue to grow up and move forward in life. I still have to battle back tears whenever any Boston sports team gets eliminated from postseason competitions. Although my competitive nature may be a challenge at times, I can proudly declare that competing in sport has led to priceless opportunities, one of which is coaching wheelchair basketball on Sundays with Adaptive Sports New England.

When I chose to go to the University of Missouri, I had never been in the state. The one reason I chose to enroll at Mizzou is because they were part of the Intercollegiate Wheelchair Basketball Division of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association. I was thrilled to be a student athlete, where I would play on a team with other students who also had a physical disability. Although the athletes on the Mizzou team came from all over the US (and world), the relationships and connections made are just as strong today as they were in their peak. Having a disability in the modern world can be quite challenging at times. The ability to connect with others with similar lived-experiences to me gave me confidence, joy and pride for furthering my understanding of who I was.

Sunday is one of my favorite days of the week. Not only is there no school on Sundays, but there is also football, brunch opportunities, and lastly, wheelchair basketball! Every part of the practice routine is full of fun, movement and team building. For instance, we begin every practice with a game that is structured to get us moving, our muscles and bodies warm and to get us to push ourselves. An example of a warm up game we often play is a tag game called Fishy Fishy Cross My Ocean. This game is a classic tag game that always gets our hearts pumping. Fishy Fishy is particularly enjoyable for me because we often have two of our youngest basketball players begging to be the taggers, or sharks.

Next, we circle up and stretch to make sure we are taking care of our muscles and stretching before intensifying our practice. While we stretch we always answer an attendance question. Attendance questions are general and fun questions that we share to learn more about our teammates. A couple of examples are; sharing your favorite midnight snack?, and If you could create a holiday what would it be and what would you call it? I love asking attendance questions and hearing players’ answers because they always make me laugh or allow me to learn so much more about individuals on the team. After we stretch we split up into small groups and work on skills. This is where all players work on skills and strength-building to apply to their in-game performance. Lastly, after we have worked hard and kicked up a sweat…. We play! We split up into teams, come up with team names, and we play. It is so rewarding to see players enjoying the game and working to set their teammates up for success.

The joy of watching young athletes laugh, talk, pass and encourage each other and develop their own small community is priceless and I only hope that athletes learn to be better athletes, but more importantly, learn more about life.

Ethan Linsky is one of our two phenomenal wheelchair basketball head coaches – find out more about our program here!