SportAbility holds first wheelchair b-ball event at Family Life Center

Vincen Liddle has been paraplegic for 10 years, the result of spinal cord injury in 2007. The Waterloo native relies on a wheelchair for mobility, but what some might see as a barrier, Liddle has embraced as an opportunity to coach and keep moving.

When Liddle and his family moved to Prairie City last year, he brought motivation to stay active and his nonprofit with the same goal along for the ride.

Liddle is president of SportAbility of Iowa, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides ongoing sports and recreation programs to help people in the local community with physical disabilities to enjoy an active lifestyle. The group is hosting its first open gym of 2018 for wheelchair basketball from 6 to 8 p.m. Jan. 31 at the Family Life Center in Prairie City.

Liddle has been involved with adaptive sports since his injury, coaching basketball, track and field and many other sports. Now, with his son enrolled in PCM schools, Liddle hopes to introduce wheelchair enabled sports in area high school and middle school gym classes, as well as grow SportAbility throughout Iowa.

“I have a passion for it, and I saw great need in Iowa for adaptive sports and to grow the availability for people to come out, play and be involved in competitive and recreational teams,” Liddle said.

SportAbility of Iowa now calls Prairie City home. Liddle and the nonprofit’s vice present, Amy Van Der Kamp, had their license transferred to Prairie City in March. The move will allow SportAbility to tap into a larger need in the Des Moines metro area, while still reaching out statewide.

“We decided it would be nice to bring SportAbility closer to the Des Moines area, but also keep that small-town, rural feeling,” Liddle said.

Liddle went before the Prairie City City Council in December and received verbal support from the city to base the club in town. SportAbility of Iowa is now a locally registered nonprofit organization, and it has signed a one-year agreement with the Paralympics Sports Committee — which is a division of the U.S. Olympic Committee.

SportAbility of Iowa has its roots in Solon near Cedar Rapids, forming in 2010. The organization hosts an adaptive sports camp every June at the University of Northern Iowa and holds clinics throughout eastern Iowa in partnership with Kirkwood Community College and St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids. It also started the competitive age 13 and under wheelchair basketball team the Rolling Panthers, which practices in Waterloo, and competes throughout the Midwest.

All SportAbility staff members are non-paid volunteers and have been since its inception, but Liddle said the nonprofit is working toward acquiring funding to hire paid workers to manage some of its programs as it expands. The organization currently serves about 30 athletes statewide.

Weekly practices will be at The Family Life Center in Prairie City, while still maintaining its other weekly events in Cedar Falls, Cedar Rapids and Ida Grove. Once up and running, the club will offer a range of adaptive sports in Prairie City, including wheelchair basketball, softball, tennis — also referred to as “up and down” tennis with a standing a sitting player — and track and field.

The ultimate goal for the nonprofit is to build its own facility in Prairie City. Liddle said they are in early talks to build a wheelchair and handicap accessible gym with indoor track and basketball courts, which will be available to the entire community. Liddle said they are beginning to fundraise and have a timeline of three to five years for the facility’s development.

“We will grow from there with, potentially, our own facility down the road to locate in Prairie City,” Liddle said. “We’re looking to expand on that. Obviously, they’re all very spread out. Iowa is very rural, so it’s hard to get everybody together at once. But on a regular basis, on our practices and different programs, we have eight to 10 athletes come on a regular basis.”

For more information on SportAbility of Iowa or to find the group’s statewide wheelchair sporting events, go online to sportabilityofiowa.org or find them on their Facebook page.

Contact Mike Mendenhall at mmendenhall@myprairiecitynews.com