On a Saturday afternoon at a high school gym in North Hollywood, students are wrapping up their varsity volleyball practice. In the stands, dozens of spectators patiently wait for their turn. Patiently waiting with basketball in their laps, eyes on the hoops, and hands on the wheels. Minutes pass by before Alvin Malave, the team’s coach and program coordinator at Angel City Sports, stacks up all the basketball wheelchairs against the wall. “Let’s roll, guys!” he said, whistle in hand.

As soon as everything is ready, the spectators wheel to these chairs and transfer to the high-level adaptive equipment. There are different disabilities and different skill levels, but one love of the same sport: basketball.

The team's players line up for shooting drills (Clémence Feniou / USC)

Basketball is the second most popular sport in the United States. Its adaptive version — wheelchair basketball — is one of eight sports played at the first-ever Paralympics Games in 1960. More than six decades later, wheelchair basketball is among the most popular parasports, gathering more than 100,000 players worldwide.

Viewers may have caught a glimpse of wheelchair basketball during the last Paralympics. The non-extensive coverage of the competition doesn’t spotlight adaptive sports as it does with the Olympics discipline. In 2021, 150 million Americans watched the Summer Olympics, an audience in decline. But the viewership was still significantly higher than the Paralympics, which accumulated 14.1 million viewers on NBC.

But that does not prevent organizations like Angel City Sports from creating and organizing events for athletes in adaptive sports. The LA-based non-profit offers year-round adaptive sports events, with archery, football, swimming, tennis, and basketball, for athletes to train in various sports. For athletes with disabilities, these services provide a chance at a new life.

Thanks to Angel City Sports, LA is now home to the first women’s competitive wheelchair basketball team in California.

Practice starts with wheelchair drills: exercises of mastery, control, and speed with the wheelchair. It’s only after that athletes can eagerly start to play ball. “I definitely feel really competitive,” said Olivia Northcutt-Wyly, a 20-year-old wheelchair basketball player with Angel City Sports. “It's good because there are some things that you can't do in a wheelchair, but when you're playing wheelchair sports, it gets you back in the game.”

(Clémence Feniou / USC)

Northcutt-Wyly started playing when a guest speaker gave a lecture at USC about Angel City Sports and their sports community. Within a few months, she picked up all the habits of the game and is already one of the fastest and best-skilled within the team. “I was looking for community within wheelchair sports,” she said.

In this gym, filled with smiles, advice from her teammates, and cheers of encouragement, there is no doubt that the young player found what she was looking for. “I’m looking forward to getting involved more in competition, but we’ll see where it takes me.”

The early December session aslo welcomes rookies to the sport. Ruth Jacques, 15, is participating in her first session. Determined to play basketball, her mom looked for options after her school could not welcome her to their running basketball team. “I was thrilled when my mom told me she found this organization. I’m not good now, but maybe I’ll become better,” said Jacques, laughing.

Starting this sport is a challenging task for the teenager. The wheelchair used for basketball slightly differs from the daily one. But at Angel City Sports, everyone is ready to give a hand. Mackenzie Soldan, a member of the team, quickly came to help. Showing tips to maneuver the chair in an easy and quick manner.

(Clémence Feniou / USC)

Soldan did not stop there and quickly trained Jacques with some basketball techniques and bits of advice. This precious guidance comes from a Paralympic gold medalist with the 2016 USA women’s wheelchair basketball team.“For me, it's really special to see people starting their journey in basketball and sports because that was me when I was younger,” Soldan said.

The Paralympic champion started her journey at seven when she discovered she could play basketball in a wheelchair. A way to enrich her life when she was at the time - envious of kids who could run and jump around. “I’m grateful I discovered it young, and I’m glad to see young players joining us,” Soldan said. “It's really special, and it reminds me of how much I love the sport.”

The sport is accessible to almost every type of disability, whether physical, mental, from birth, or as a result of an illness or accident, parasports can change lives. Wheelchair basketball can be played by athletes with ataxia, athetosis, impaired muscle power, hypertonia, limb amputation, limb deficiency, leg length difference, cerebral palsy, or paralysis.

Malave was hit by a car at age 22. "Obviously, it was a pretty traumatic experience, but I was an athlete my whole life before that point," he said. "I was introduced to it [wheelchair basketball] shortly after I got injured, and it was the magical connection I needed to help rebuild my life and my identity, and strengthen my body and my mental [state], every aspect of my life."

Twenty years after his accident, Malave transformed his disability into his job and life. After working for UCLA's recreational disability programs, he is now the head of Angel City Sport's wheelchair basketball program and the women's team coach.

“We're really excited because it's the only program for women in California to play wheelchair basketball competitively,” said Malave. “And I'm fortunate enough to be able to coach that team and be able to introduce the game to a whole new generation of athletes who are trying to get into the sport.”

The non-profit organization has been based in LA since 2013. For almost a decade, Angel City Sports have encouraged the development of parasports, but many barriers remain on the path to better accessibility. Still, the organization is determined to keep giving more and more access to it. “When I go to the sports clinics and see these kids smiling ear to ear, it means too much to them; we have to continue doing what we are doing.”

Angel City Sports rely on sponsors and donations. Annually, the non-profit held the Angel City Games, a weekend of sports and community. These games lastly, held in June, were sponsored by the Hartford. In November, the non-profit organized a courage weekend dedicated to veterans and first responders, and Fox Sports sponsored the event.

“It's really interesting, the pipeline and how many barriers are in the pipeline for disability. Here in America, there are some outstanding organizations doing great work, but most are underfunded, and they're spread across the country,” said Cathy McKay, a professor of kinesiology at James Madison University and parasports advocate.

With the arrival of the L.A. 2028 Olympics and Paralympics, the hope is that it will bring even more help and awareness around adaptive sports. “We need to start to create the awareness and start to even the playing field when it comes to the popularity of the Olympic movement and the popularity of the Paralympic,” said Professor McKay.

The Department of Parks and Recreation (RAP), in an agreement signed on December 18, 2019, was approved to receive a $160 million grant from the L.A. 2028 committee. This funding is partly targeted to support a Youth Sports & Fitness Program. For this program, the RAP is entitled to use 20% of the yearly $19,200,000 to direct youth sports or fitness programs, including adaptive sports activities.

For Malave, the progress is slow but still happening. “Whether it's support from the government or private funding, adaptive sports really needs to be valued on a whole other scale.”

Until then, small organizations continue to do the work and try to expand themselves as much as possible. “People are asking us, when are you gonna start a men's team and a kids' team?" said Malave.

In a smaller community, Malave also sees the impact its wheelchair basketball program has on the players. “This changes lives. It helps you to see beyond the disability of what's possible out there,” he said. “When you come out here, and you meet other people, you start getting exposed to a lot of different things and make new friends, make new friendships, and hopefully add things to the stuff that you're doing in your life and ultimately be more enriched.”

Even with barriers, parasports continue to enrich the lives of the athletes who participate in it and so, they hope for significant visibility and fundings in the future.