From 50 years of wheelchair tennis to the Valley’s first wheelchair basketball team, adaptive sports are growing in Texas

Anthony Lara wanted to play the game his family plays. “My siblings are big time athletes, so I wanted to compete too,” Lara told KRGV. “The whole family is competitive, so I wanted to play sports and basketball was my favorite sport.” This fall, Lara — who uses a wheelchair — found his court: the Rio Grande Valley’s first wheelchair basketball team has formed, and ten specialized game chairs are waiting on the floor at the Edinburg Parks & Recreation Gym.

The team arrives as USTA Texas marks 50 years of wheelchair tennis. The two touchpoints — half a century and roughly 300 miles apart — are the same invitation: there is a chair, and playing, not watching, is the point.

Dallas, 1981

The sport’s Texas story starts on a basketball court. In 1981, Randy Snow — credited as the godfather of wheelchair tennis — went to where wheelchair athletes already were in Dallas and recruited them to try tennis from a chair. “Randy went to where wheelchair athletes were, which were on basketball courts, and he got all these great local Dallas basketballers to start trying [wheelchair tennis],” said Carlos Turic, president of the Dallas Wheelchair Tennis Club. “They got together and started playing tennis and hosting the Open Wheelchair Championships in 1981.”

The Dallas Wheelchair Tennis Club still runs the Texas Open, long central to the growth of competitive wheelchair tennis in the United States; the event began as the Southwest Regionals and Southwest Sectionals, and Texas tournaments draw national and international competitors. Turic’s pitch for the sport runs on a plain rule change: “Tennis, with a simple little bitty change in the rules, is the most accessible sport on the planet for every disability you can think of,” he said. “You can play some version of tennis for just about everybody.” Among the Texas pioneers credited with raising the sport’s profile: Randy Snow, Lynn Seidemann, and Wayne Leavitt.

The Valley’s first team

At the state’s southern end, the Valley is building its own first team. DHR Health purchased the ten specially designed wheelchairs, built for recreational and competitive basketball, to establish the Rio Grande Valley’s wheelchair basketball team. The team is a collaboration among DHR Health, the RGV Vipers organization, and Edinburg Parks & Recreation, and it plays under the name RGV Vipers Wheelchair Basketball Team.

The chairs are engineered for the game’s speed and contact. “The wheels are pointed out to increase the base support to minimize tipping or flipping because they are going to be going really fast in those chairs,” said Dr. Michael Auer, Director of the Neuro Therapy Institute at DHR Health. Auer added, “They are going to learn their center of gravity a lot better than ever in the clinic. They are going to be going after a ball, they are going to learn their limits.”

Games are expected to begin this October. For Lara, the appeal is simple: “It feels good to play in my hometown,” he told KRGV.

How to play

The ten chairs are already on hand, so equipment is not the hurdle. DHR Health is seeking male or female athletes who can independently propel a wheelchair. The minimum age is 16, though some DHR listings put it at 18 — call to confirm. The program runs through DHR Health Cares, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

Practice is Wednesdays from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. at the Edinburg Parks & Recreation Gym, 315 Mark S. Peña Drive. To join, call DHR Health outpatient rehabilitation at (956) 362-8677.

The trail runs from a Dallas basketball court in 1981 to a gym floor in Edinburg this fall: wheelchair tennis built a tournament scene Texans have joined for half a century, and the Valley is building its first team with the chairs already waiting. For anyone in the Valley, that is a standing invitation — DHR Health is actively seeking players, the chairs are on the floor, and the number to call is (956) 362-8677.