Cardiff Blue Dragons is planning to put up posters in medical centres and shops to get more people involved in wheelchair rugby
A local wheelchair rugby team is flyering around Cardiff and the surrounding area to encourage more young people to try out the sport.
The team has been distributing flyers and posters around medical centres, shops and schools to boost awareness of the team and what it does. Karen Martin, team manager, says: “We would like to get more youngsters in who could grow up with the sport.”
“We want to get more schools involved, especially ones with provision for disability students, and hold PE sessions,” reveals the team manager, “We think once the young people find the sport, they will enjoy it.”
Martin thinks a lot of people don’t know the difference between a disability sport and an inclusive sport and stresses that the Blue Dragons is open to everyone. Disability Sport, an online guide to sport for people with disabilities, defines the goal of inclusive sports is “to enable disabled athletes to participate along their able-bodied counterparts as equals”.
Cardiff Blue Dragons is a fully inclusive team, said Martin. Anyone can join, whether disabled, able-bodied or with limited movement of any nature. “In, for example, wheelchair basketball, there’s a classification system, which means some of our players wouldn’t be ‘disabled enough’ to get much time on court,” says Alana Sargent, team coach, emphasising the importance of the team to all current members.
The team has a mix of female and male players, ages ranging from nine to 57.
Lee Sargent, age 19, says his favourite thing about playing for Cardiff Blue Dragons is the fact that “you can play with anyone”. He joined the team around a year ago, having previously played the sport with Torfaen Tigers based in Pontypool. “It’s a nice place to be. We joke, but we’re serious when we need to be,” he adds about his current team.