University of Cincinnati starts Ohio’s first competitive collegiate adaptive sports program

When she was 10 years old, Logan Cover caught a glimpse of her future at a wheelchair basketball camp at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

“From then on, I knew that was the first college I wanted to go to, and I wanted to play basketball for them,” Cover said.

The Cincinnati native’s dedication to the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater’s wheelchair basketball program was twofold.

The teams are successful – both the men’s and women’s wheelchair basketball programs have a history of winning college tournaments and sending athletes (including Cover’s former coach) to the Paralympics.

And, Cover knew there weren’t any comparable opportunities locally. The U.S. Paralympic Committee program database shows no competitive adaptive sports options for disabled athletes at any colleges in Ohio.

This year, however, the University of Cincinnati is changing that with the launch of its adaptive athletics program. Athletes with disabilities can now compete in wheelchair tennis and adaptive track and field for UC.

“The logical next step”: founding UC Adaptive Athletics

Over the past decade, a number of sports programs for youth with disabilities have emerged in Cincinnati. Jacob Counts, Cover’s childhood coach, founded the Cincinnati Dragons wheelchair basketball team for kids. And, the Cincinnati Tennis Foundation created adaptive tennis opportunities for elementary and high schoolers.

But, after graduation, there were no local colleges where these athletes could compete.

“That was another big push, just for all of us to be like, ‘well, let’s, let’s try to keep some of our talent here, as opposed to sending them off to University of Michigan or Alabama or Arizona,’” Counts said.

This spring, a group of UC doctors, athletic trainers and accessibility resources staff started the program. They asked Counts to be the adaptive athletics coordinator, overseeing the brand new wheelchair tennis and adaptive track and field teams.

“As we start growing the adaptive sports scene in Cincinnati in general, it’s kind of like the logical next step,” Counts said.

Now, Counts is building the program, rolling alongside his athletes to practice wheelchair mobility drills, and recruiting next year’s class.

7.3%: the rarity of competitive adaptive athletics programs at colleges

Ohio is not the only state that lacks opportunities for athletes with disabilities.

“Let’s just say, an underwhelming proportion of colleges and universities in the United States document the existence of and the resourcing of adaptive sports programs,” said Yetsa Tuakli-Wosornu, an athlete, clinician scientist at Stanford and sports equity expert.

She and a team of researchers found just 26 NCAA Division I colleges offer competitive opportunities for adaptive athletes.

Tuakli-Wosornu says that gap in opportunity happens for two reasons.

“If the thought is they’re not going to make us money, then there’s no point in investing in these athletes. That’s the first point,” Tuakli-Wosornu said. “Then second, sometimes they’re just not thought of. Some of the unconscious bias in ableism is exactly that you just there’s a blind spot when it comes to the disadvantaged group, in this case, adaptive athletes.”

Tuakli-Wosornu says the growing popularity of women’s sports shows expanding adaptive athletics could bring in the dollars too. But, creating sports opportunities for more people has benefits beyond profit. It builds community.

Competition and community

Logan Cover is now one of the founding members of UC’s wheelchair tennis team.

She’s back in town after a stint at her dream school playing wheelchair basketball. Being eight and a half hours away from home wasn’t for her, so Cover returned to the city where she got her start: Cincinnati.

She first met Coach Counts a decade ago at a meeting for parents and kids with spina bifida, a condition impacting the spine. Cover went to her first wheelchair basketball practice with the Cincinnati Dragons shortly after.

“I just got excited because it was a sport that I could play,” Cover said. “I liked the community around it.”

So, when she got a text from her longtime coach inviting her to join UC’s new collegiate team, her answer was an easy yes.

“It honestly feels amazing being able to stay so close to home because sports has been a part of my life for a while – basically my whole life,” she said.

Now, she and her fellow UC athletes are eyeing their first Intercollegiate Tennis Association team championship in the spring. Until then, they’re focused on the day-to-day – working on their forehand shots and making time for laughs at practice.