Adaptive sports have helped Sacramento State students with disabilities roll onto the court by offering competition and community at an accessible level in The WELL.
The Recreational Therapy Program hosts basketball, tennis and rugby adapted into wheelchair sports for students every Tuesday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., with the sports rotating each week.
Will Hahn, the recreational therapist at The WELL, said adaptive sports work as a form of recreational therapy because it helps relieve mental and physical stress. Hahn said the sports equipment, rules and gameplay are modified based on the individual’s impairment.
“Adaptive sports are important to have at Sac State because we have a large population of individuals with disabilities,” Hahn said. “We want to be able to provide access to play a sport in a different way.”
He said the sports are played with “Rugby” and all-sport wheelchairs, funded by a memorandum of understanding between the Recreational Therapy Program and Recreation Parks and Tourism Administration at Sac State.
“Rugby wheelchairs are designed with a specific metal to crash into the other chair,” Hahn said. “All-sport chairs are typically used for wheelchair basketball or tennis and have fewer guards on them.”
Taryn Church, a senior recreational therapy major and student supervisor of the Recreational Therapy Department, said she was in a car accident six years ago that injured her leg.
“I haven’t been able to play traditional sports in a very long time for health reasons and my disability. When I’m sitting in that chair, I don’t have to feel my pain,” Church said. “That was so freeing to a part of myself that I thought I had to give up on.”
Church said she found an outlet in adaptive sports last fall semester, and she has since kept coming back as a player and cheerleader.
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“I don’t have to think about my limitations, and I get to bring back a happy time in my life when I was doing competitive sports in high school,” Church said. “That was over 20 years ago for me.”
Hahn said one of the biggest misconceptions about adaptive sports is that they are only for individuals with disabilities.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re in a wheelchair, if you’re standing, if you’re using a pacer,” Hahn said. “[Adaptive sports] are for everyone.”
Austin Trenkamp, a senior parks and recreation major, said he has never been interested in traditional sports but enjoys adaptive sports because of the inclusive community.
“’I’m kind of an older student. I go to home and school, and that’s about it,” Trenkamp said. “As a socialization kind of thing, this is really nice.”
Trenkamp said he likes adaptive sports more than traditional sports because of the even playing field it creates.
“You’ve got to actually know how to play tennis and shoot a basketball,” Trenkamp said. “You have to do it from the position of the chairs, so it’s a lot harder.”
Wheelchair rugby will be the next adaptive sport event hosted on the MAC Court in The WELL on Oct. 28, 2025.
