Every child wants to belong to a group. And most kids want to play team sports. Not only is it just fun, but they also love to fit in: to wear a uniform, to have a position, to simply fit it. And this goes for kids with handicaps, disabilities, and delays.
The world of team sports for children and adults with disabilities is growing, but it can still be hard to find. This page is dedicated to helping those kids find teams to join.
This is a collection of links, sites, and information assembled by me, Pete Gaughan. This sprang from trying to find opportunities for my daughter. It isn't a professional or full-time effort; it's just one guy trying to keep track of it all. Always start by checking your local parks and recreation department or your state or local bureau for the disabled. But here, I want to gather all the non-government info I can. (The VIP soccer program I run is online here.)
I have short sections on each national program; then, at the bottom of this page, I'm building a list of soccer programs by specific locale. I'd be happy to build similar lists for other sports, but I don't have the time to search for those; if you send me the info, I'll add it.
My last chance to update this list was November 23, 2008.
The VIP program is a unique division of AYSO for challenged players with physical, mental, or developmental limitations. The AYSO site has more details on how VIP works, as do most AYSO regional web pages. To find an AYSO VIP program near you, call AYSO's international headquarters in Southern California: (310) 643-6455, ask for the Programs Dept.
TOPSoccer (The Outreach Program for Soccer) is a community-based training and team placement program for young athletes with disabilities, organized by youth soccer association volunteers. For more information, see the U.S. Youth Soccer site, which also lists regional TOPS coordinators for various parts of the U.S. To find a TOPS program near you, call US Youth Soccer at (800) 4-SOCCER.
Here are some special-needs soccer programs, but this is a meager start. ANY special-ed, special-needs, handicapped, or disabled team, from anywhere in America, is welcome to be added to this list; I'll create new subsections for regions not yet represented here. Most of the linked pages contain contact information for individual program directors. (Where a city isn't linked, I've heard of a team but can't yet find an individual or web page; call the national organization to get contact info for those leagues.)