AAASP Organization

                          AAASP Milestones and Historical Timeline
                                      Through 2000
1980–1988
    Educators within Georgia’s DeKalb County School District (DCSD) initiated a volunteer after–
      school sports program for students with physical disabilities.
1989-1990
    Parents of students with physical disabilities in Georgia’s DCSD met with members of the Board
      of Education to advocate for hiring a full-time Coordinator to manage and lead the adapted sports
      program, which had gone beyond the capacity of volunteer efforts.
    DCSD has hired Bev Vaughn, a certified therapeutic recreation therapist at Emory University
      Hospital with experience and expertise in developing and administering programs for underserved
      populations in clinical, community, and educational settings, to serve as the school district's first
      Adapted Sports Coordinator.
1991-1995
    Vaughn thoroughly evaluated the program, transforming it from an after-school recreational
      activity into an athletic program that more closely resembles school athletics for students without
      disabilities.
    The program’s design now meets the standards set by national adult disabled sports governing
      bodies and interscholastic athletics for students without disabilities.
    Emphasis is placed on academic standards, standardized seasons, cross-disability rules, policies,
      and educational training for coaches. Vaughn is assembling a team of leaders in paralympic sports,
      high school athletics, and business to explore program expansion and replication in other school
      districts.
1996-1999
    The Georgia State Senate commended the DCSD Adapted Sports Program through Senate
      Resolution 262.
    The Atlanta Paralympic Organizing Committee (APOC) endorses AAASP, and the APOC Youth
      and Education Committee named DCSD the “Model for the Nation.”
    Tommie Storms, a businesswoman, broadcast professional, and post-secondary education program
      director, developed a business plan to replicate the DCSD adapted sports model, as
      reconceptualized by Vaughn. The plan involves forming a non–profit association to provide
      leadership and governance for a replicable school–based league system.
    Vaughn and Storms founded the American Association of Adapted Sports Programs (AAASP), a
      nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. Vaughn takes on the role of AAASP’s CEO, while Storms
      assumes the position of AAASP’s COO.
    Ron Lykins, a Paralympic wheelchair basketball coach, has been hired as the AAASP Director of
      Training. He will create and oversee AAASP-adapted sports educational coaching courses.
    Leslie Sweatman joined the AAASP staff as the organization’s State Coordinator and assisted with
      educational training for coaches and officials. She previously taught students with orthopedic
      impairments at Avondale High School in the DCSD, specializing in coaching the wheelchair team
      in handball and basketball.
   AAASP develops a school-based membership structure and administrative plans for standardized
    adapted team sports, program implementation, and sustainability.
   AAASP and the United States Disabled Athletes Fund are collaborating to expand the DeKalb
    school’s adapted sports model as a Paralympic legacy program across other school districts in
    Georgia.
   AAASP hosted a free workshop at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta on September 15, 1996, for
    school-aged students with physical disabilities and their parents. The workshop featured a panel
    discussion with experts, a demonstration of wheelchair team handball, guided discussion groups,
    and an opportunity for parents to register their children for the wheelchair team handball program.
    AAASP implemented wheelchair team handball (formerly indoor wheelchair soccer) as its first
    competitive sport for physically disabled students. In January 1997, AAASP introduced its second
    competitive sport, wheelchair basketball. Track and field was offered in the spring of 1997.
    AAASP adapted the rules of the national governing bodies for disabled sports to facilitate
    appropriate competition for school children with various physical disabilities.
   Between 1996 and 1998, more than a dozen new teams were created in three adapted team
    sports. Twenty-five coaches received training and certification in wheelchair team handball and
    wheelchair basketball. Six disability sports classifiers were trained in collaboration with Walton
    Rehabilitation Hospital, Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute, and Scottish Rite Children’s Hospital.
    Sixteen referees were trained in wheelchair team handball and wheelchair basketball. Five Adapted
    Sports Coordinators underwent training. Ten workshops were conducted for parents and teachers.
    Seventy regular-season games took place statewide.
   Professors from Emory University and the University of Georgia conducted a comprehensive
    study on participants in adapted sports programs, documenting improvements in physical,
    emotional, and social aspects of their lives.
   AAASP assumes management and financial responsibilities for the Southeast Regional Victory
    Games track and field meet, formerly known as the DeKalb–Gwinnett Victory Games. This
    competition will be the primary event of AAASP’s track and field season in the state of Georgia.
   The Georgia state legislature appropriates funds to support AAASP’s operations.
   Inaugural recipient of the IMPACT Award, United Way of Metro Atlanta, for exemplifying the
    goals of America’s Promise (headed by Retired General Colin Powell) to empower America’s
    youth.
   Received the Community Program Award, Tommy Nobis Center Foundation, for an outstanding,
    proactive, and innovative approach to helping those with physical disabilities reach their full
    potential.
   Named Semi-finalist (Top 100 of 1600 applicants) in “Innovations in American Government
    Award,” Ford Foundation, John F. Kennedy School of Government.