Staten Island Advance

Plenty of Participants

Ryan Martin is a National Wheelchair Basketball Association All-Star for the New York Rollin' Knicks, and on Thursday he was promoting and teaching the sport to a gym full of 76 participants at the College of Staten Island.

Martin, who was born with spina bifida, a rare birth defect that resulted in the amputation of both of his legs at just two years old, preached pointers on passing, ball handling, and shooting before the participants strapped themselves into their own chairs and took their best shots in wheelchair basketball scrimmage games.

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Staten Island Advance

Promote the Game

CUNY Athletics linked up with the NWBA and the Ryan Martin Foundation to organize the event in an effort to promote CUNY's growing Inclusive and Adaptive Sports Program.

The event was open to all CSI students and faculty, who were gifted with t-shirts and snacks, as well as a fun-filled afternoon rolling up and down the court -- which is far more difficult than it looks.

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Inclusivity

"I think the goal is to have inclusivity and offer diverse programs," said Martin. "There's a lot of individuals with disabilities and not many programs geared towards them.

"It's important we become more inclusive and do more to support their efforts as students," added Martin. "I've been working with CUNY to facilitate a full out wheelchair basketball program in the future, I think it's a great step toward creating programming for all students regardless of whether or not they are disabled in order to be more diverse and eliminate stereotypes to develop a welcome environment for all."

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What About Other Students?

CUNYAC Executive Director Zak Ivkovic was on hand and served as the event's MC on the sidelines.

"I think we can't continue to look at athletics so narrowly," explained Ivkovic. "We focus on student-athletes, but what about the other students? There's 9,000 students in the CUNY system with disabilities and we're looking for ways to engage them."

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Rollin' Dolphins?

The goal is for CSI to hopefully field its own wheelchair basketball team down the road, which would make the school just the 15th college program in the country to do so.

Martin led Southwest Minnesota State University to the NWBA title game while attending the school in 2001.

"With Ryan's support, we're hopeful to have a club team next year," said Ivkovic. "People are shocked by how difficult it is, it gives a lot of appreciation to those who are living it every single day.

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Putting it Together

CSI Commissioner for Disabled Students and Veterans Affairs Samantha Wong along with Deputy Commissioner Lucia Rossi spent an entire semester putting the event together specifically to align with CUNY's Disability Awareness Month, which kicked off on Monday.

"We definitely want to spread awareness," said Wong. "It was a great experience and it's good to bring awareness to students and build student spirit. Many assume you have to have a disability to play, but it's open to all students."

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