Adaptive Sports and Recreation in WNY- Family Perspective

Three local athletes, Steve Spitz, Emily Keicher and Adam Page return. Emily is accompanied by her parents Chris and Liz. Adam is accompanied by his father, Norm. We discuss family and sports. The topics range from parents (Steve, Chris, Liz and Norm) supporting and coaching their children in sports, camaraderie with other parents through adaptive sports, and sports/recreation that they enjoy as a family. Athletes and parents emphasize the benefits that adaptive/inclusive sports have had for their family. Host: Jeanne Langan, Department of Rehabilitation Science, UB.
 
 The Adaptive Sports and Recreation in WNY podcast was created to share experiences and expertise of athletes, their families and community organizations on adaptive sports and recreation in WNY. Episodes will highlight different perspectives on adaptive and inclusive sports and recreation in WNY. This podcast is a collaboration between Greater Buffalo Adaptive sports and the Department of Rehabilitation Science at the University at Buffalo. 

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Transcript

Episode 3 - Family Perspective

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

sports, athletes, parents, adaptive sports, emily, coach, disabled, people, western new york, opportunity, playing, adam, kids, family, buffalo, sled hockey, game, disability, wheelchair, involved

SPEAKERS

Chris Keicher, Emily Keicher, Liz Keicher, Jeanne Langan, Adam Page, Norm Page, Steve Spitz

Steve Spitz  00:00

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the adaptive sports and recreation in Western New York podcast. We're going to share some experiences and expertise of local athletes, their families and community organizations. Our discussions are going to range from league sport competitions to weekend fun with family and friends. Coming to you from Buffalo, New York, the city of good neighbors, great year-round recreation and definitely a play hard attitude.

Jeanne Langan  00:35

I'm Jean Langan, hosting episode three of the adaptive sports in Western New York podcast. This podcast is a collaboration between the Rehabilitation Science Department at the University at Buffalo, and the Western New York community. In this episode, we will be talking about family perspective. In episodes one and two, we discussed the adaptive sports that they participate in, and the adaptive equipment that they use for those sports. Today, three of those athletes have returned to discuss family perspectives. Steve, Emily, and Adam. And some of those athletes have brought family members with them. I'm going to ask the athletes to introduce their family members.

Emily Keicher  01:14

Well, my dad is actually the coach of my wheelchair basketball team. And mom, she's, I like to call her the co-coach. She helps us with, you know, helping to plan our like events and stuff and [inaudible] halftime at UB women's basketball games. We just did it this past a year, helping me with adaptive sports and helping me get out there.

Jeanne Langan  01:38

That's great.

Adam Page  01:39

My dad's been anywhere from Team Manager, to my coach, to waterboy. Both my parents have been really supportive and anything that like I wanted to do, and, you know, never said no, and, you know, I think that's also the, you know, the biggest thing for me is growing up, I've had all these opportunities to try all different sports because my parents never said no and would take me to do those things. And, you know, obviously, at 5, 6, 7, 8 years old, you know, you can't take yourself anywhere. So, you know, it was my parents that were kind of sacrificing weekends to take me to tournaments, or to games or things like that.

Jeanne Langan  02:22

And, Steve, you are an athlete, but you also have children. How do you get involved in their sports?

Steve Spitz  02:30

I have to stop and just go back to that, just to how great that is to hear because, you know, as a parent, in general, you just want your kids to explore and try different things. And, you know, to know, from as a disabled athlete, from the past thirty years of being in a chair, knowing the limited opportunities that were around, when I first entered into the disabled sports arena. Now there's just so much more for these guys to try and find that niche. You know, that's, that's so cool to hear. But for me, it was, you know, a lot of it. So, I was in adaptive sports before I was a father. So, you know, I, I was exploring and trying different things. When I started to be a parent, I wanted to find things, more things that I could do with my children, that was one of the big factors in me getting into downhill skiing. So, because my kids were of the age, getting them involved in that. I had a friend that that we all know here, Mark, that is a big skier and kept pushing and pushing, saying you could do it and I realized that could be independent and ski with my kids. And that was a huge, huge factor, you know, in giving it a try. But with, with, you know, all the sports that I've done, I tried to do that, you know, do it with my children as well and, and so that we can all enjoy together.

Jeanne Langan  03:57

Tell me a little bit about some of your favorite family moments with adaptive sports.

Chris Keicher (Emily Keicher’s father)  04:02

Well, I know that for me personally, the first practice that we had for wheelchair basketball, it was such a such an eye-opening experience for me, just seeing all the kids with their faces, the smiles that they had on their face out on the court, just playing the game and practicing. And I actually have a picture downstairs where somebody had taken a picture with Emily, I was standing up next to Emily, she was looking up at me, I was looking down at her and we were talking about basketball. And I always go back to that picture whenever I see it. And that always says to me, you know the things that I love about, you know, coaching that team and that I love seeing her being a part of all these different sports.

Jeanne Langan  04:44

As a reminder for people that may not have been in episode one or two, it's an inclusive basketball team. What was your thinking with making it an inclusive basketball team?

Liz Keicher (Emily Keicher’s mother)  04:56

Well, I think that Emily has got friends who are or athletes on her other adaptive sports teams. But she's got friends who are in school, who aren’t disabled. And it just doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense that one group should be playing over here, and another group should be playing over here. Why wouldn't everybody just be playing together? And I think sometimes you just got to find a way to get the playing field level for everybody (inclusivity), but if you're playing, and you're still separate from people you still want to be playing with or you are on the outside watching in when somebody's playing, you're not really fully experiencing that inclusion. So, I think it's important to figure out how to break down those barriers and get everybody, people with varying levels of disability, people with no physical disabilities, people who may have cognitive disabilities, figuring out a way to bring them all together, together to play really just gives you a good example of, of inclusivity. So, I think that's what we largely had in mind. How to get everybody together, who wants to play, and the sports wheelchair, I think, is what really ends up being the vehicle to bring it all together.

Norm Page (Adam Page’s father)  06:08

It's a powerful thing to do that and have that as part of the sports programs. I think, you know, letting people know that that's important. Some, you know, there may be some sports where that doesn't happen. And I think that's, I think this is such a positive way to do it, because it includes the families, it includes the siblings, what was said is so true. I mean, it's such a, it does level the playing field, but it builds awareness for everyone involved. And I think of Adam, when, you know, we got away with Greater Buffalo Adaptive Sports. We, you know, we saw sled hockey, but we knew that, as Steve has said, you know, there's so many other things that we saw that, you know, we probably should be doing, giving opportunities. Not everybody is a hockey fan, not everybody wants, there should be, all of these sports should be available to all of our kids, whatever the situation may be. And so, I think, Adam saw that, and we expanded into lacrosse first and got into wheelchair lacrosse. And the first thing we did was say, we need to have, you know, able bodied, as well as, you know, disabled athletes on a team together. They taught us how to play lacrosse, and we taught them how to use the chair. And you know, the disability goes away, it disappears. Just one example, I remember Adam, the first day we dropped him off at kindergarten and his mom and I were scared to death.  Here he was walking into, you know, his first day of kindergarten and how were these kids going to see Adam. And here's this little boy at the door with Adam and he opened the door for Adam and he's just talking to Adam and they walked in. He didn't see the crutches, just like his mom and I didn't see the crutches and I think that's what sport does. When we put all of these athletes together, you know, whatever be if it's in a chair, or if it's on a sled or whatever it may be. All those go away and it’s just, you know, they're adults, they're kids, you know, they're veterans, whatever it may be, they're just playing sport together. And that just knocks down all the barriers.

Liz Keicher  08:20

Yeah, I think that's key. I think you're breaking down the barriers. And I think that you're really also providing the opportunity for people who aren't disabled to understand that people with disabilities are regular people who enjoy regular things like sports. And you're, you're having the opportunity to kind of, I don't want to say, teach, but without even teaching, you're really just providing the kids who are not disabled on the team with the opportunity to say, oh, yeah, it's just me and so and so hanging out, playing a sport together. I think that just starts to bring about awareness and normalizing accessibility and understanding what using wheelchair might involve, and you just, I think you open up a whole, a whole extra world of things too with players that you're including, who aren’t disabled, to break down barriers that exist between in the world between people with disabilities and without.

Steve Spitz  09:25

I want to just say that the words that come to mind are inclusion and acceptance and integration, and it's just kind of, you know, it's just a cool thing to see.

Liz Keicher  09:34

I think that a lot of times, sometimes the disability access is someone who's not disabled, helping somebody who's disabled and that's not any form of inclusion. You know, I think sports allow the possibility for somebody to say, yeah, let's do this together. Let's play this together. You know, we're playing this as two equal people. And I think that ends up being pretty powerful.

Jeanne Langan  10:00

Tell me a little bit about your experience as parents of children in the sport?

Chris Keicher 10:07

Well, I'll tell you, it's because I also coach at the high school that I teach at. You know, I always sat back and during Emily's sled hockey games, especially and I remember saying to myself, no yelling, no screaming, let the coaches coach.  You know, because I'm putting my parent hat on versus being the coach. So, it's a completely different thing. But, you know, I found myself when she was especially in sled and seeing her in her games, during sled hockey, seeing all the different things that she was doing, and, and after every single practice, or after every single game, the first thing Emily always says, when we get in the car is what do I need to work on? You know, and it's like, well, let's talk about the good things you did first. You did a lot of good things. And then you pick one or two things, but there's definitely a different hat between coach and parent. When you're both a coach and a parent, I think it makes it even a little bit more difficult sometimes in the stands.

Jeanne Langan  11:07

That's a good point because all of the parents in here, coached at some time for their children. Do you coach baseball?

Steve Spitz  11:18

Yeah, similar situation, you know, you got to be careful how you approach it then. But tried to be involved as much as I could, as you know, for my kids to see me as a normal part of the team.

Jeanne Langan  11:34

And norm, I'm sure you've gotten some coaching

Norm Page  11:35

Yeah, it was, you know, it was an interesting thing, because, you know, I started with Adam’s sled hockey. And as Adam said, I was a waterboy, when I started. That was the easiest job to be honest with you. It got much tougher after that. You know, I coached and, you know, helped run the program and then took over the program, and then followed them up to the ranks and got very involved with the national program. And, you know, it's a tough transition from, you know, being his coach and on the ice with him every day as a coach and out on the ice, and then in the gym with him as well. I would be his personal trainer with him in those early years, and then, all of a sudden turning him over to the national team and having, you know, the National coaches, and him being on a national team and traveling internationally. He was young. For his mom and I, it was tough because he was 15 when he made the national team. And, you know, he was just, he was just a kid. And you know, here we're sending them off. I remember his first trip to Japan, and, you know, he's with 20, 30, 40 year olds, and I know what 20,30 and 40 year old men do. You know, here he's a 15 year old and you know, it's was a scary time for us, but it was his dream and we were there, but obviously, we weren't with the team. We were, we were parents and I mean, but I think, you know, and we talked about some of the, you know, we think about the moments, but I think it was it was all the moments with Adam and him being true to himself. I mean, because he was, there were times when he was approached with some adult things that, you know, aren't easy, you know, whether it be drugs and alcohol and the things that adults deal with sometimes. Adam was always true to himself, and who he was. And I think, to me, that's more important than the gold medals he received. I think him being who he is as a human being and believing and knowing who he was as a person was, was probably the greatest thing, you know, his mom and I could ever hope for.

Jeanne Langan  13:49

Wow, that is very powerful. Then, from Adam and Emily, have you seen your parents play the sports that you're in?

Emily Keicher  13:58

For me, yeah. Daddy, he coaches it, but sometimes, whenever we do practices, he would just do like a little game with me and we usually play with each other. Yeah.

Jeanne Langan  14:10

Are your parents good at wheelchair basketball?

Emily Keicher  14:13

Yes, they are. Definitely. Coaching and basketball perspective.

Liz Keicher  14:20

And we do some running, right? 

Emily Keicher  14:23

Yes. Yeah. 

Liz Keicher  14:25

But we do usually put the with headphones on and grind it out, right?

Jeanne Langan  14:30

Adam?

Adam Page  14:32

I think my dad tried sled hockey once or twice, used my or tried my sled once that I remember and that was it for about five minutes.

Norm Page  14:46

Even his trainer was struggling with it and he's a pretty, pretty strong guy. How do these athletes do it?  I mean, they make it look so easy. Oh, my goodness, it was like fighting a boxer for 12 rounds in about three minutes. Yeah, pretty funny.

Jeanne Langan  15:09

What are your thoughts about future endeavors?

Norm Page  15:13

I think the exciting part, you know, and I think everybody's kind of mentioned here is, you know, Steve said it, and said it very well, and it's, it's about, you know, more sports, more opportunities, you know, thinking about those athletes that haven't had the opportunity yet. Because there's an athlete in all of us in one way, shape, or form, and I think, you know, just being able to offer so many different sports. So, all of a sudden, you catch the eye of somebody that maybe hasn't done it, hasn't done anything and said, you know, I'd like to try that. At one time, it was just sled hockey, and, you know, thinking about the future of, you know, anything, you know, any of those sports, anything that can build, you know, self-confidence and self-esteem, that we can give these kids and adults and veterans and, you know, I think that's, I think that's our job to try to do that in all of Buffalo and Western New York, you know, continue to build out the sports and the different things and the opportunities that we can give all of these athletes. Just like anybody else, if they want to try tennis, they should be able to do tennis. If they want to try, you know, volleyball, they should be able to do volleyball. If they want to downhill ski, they should be able to downhill ski or track or, you know, or basketball, whatever it is, I mean, it should be, that should always be, you know, an opportunity for anybody, whether they are disabled or not.

Liz Keicher  16:42

Yeah, I think Norm says it best. It's really about like access and availability and if you can go out and go to the court and play basketball or go do volleyball, you want to have that same opportunity for somebody who's an adaptive athlete, not something where you necessarily have to schedule a time or try to access a very expensive specialized piece of equipment or, you know, really work it in the schedule. But just if you're getting up on a Sunday, and you want to be able to do the sport, you're going out and you have the availability and the access to do it. And I think the more options for sports that people have in the area, the better chance that is, and I think that you the more options you get and can offer to kids from a very young age, the better chance you have of creating lifelong sports fanatics, and people who have access to, you know, sports throughout their entire life. I think I wanted to go back to when we talked about the families and everything. I think that one of the important things on the parents side of being out with the athletes is the ability to touch base with other families and like share your story and hear what their story is, and share resources and share other sports. And sometimes I think that we get a little isolated, and maybe we're out at a friend's house who isn't disabled. And some of the points that might be things that are topics or things that we're looking at, or avenues we want to talk about. It's not necessarily a shared conversation. But that time I think in the in the in the stands as a parent is your time to also touch base with other parents and talk about medical advances on certain things or talk about challenges you might be facing with schooling or this and really kind of brainstorm and share a lot of information. So, I think that while the kids from our point of view, Emily's getting good amount of teamwork and socializing with people out there, but I know for me as a parent, that's also the opportunity for me to touch base with other parents who might be looking at similar things or facing similar obstacles or looking for similar avenues for things and this is the time to really network and speak with them and, you know, get more answers and also see what other things people are looking to see in the community. So, I think it's a good, it's good team building, I think for the parents too, who are in there, you know, who are in the stands.

Norm Page  19:08

It's true and I think all of us who have had those experiences in the hotels and the weekends and, you know, we've all done it. Steve, all of us have been part of all of this. And it was, Liz, put it, put it so, so eloquently that, you know, we learned, you know, it's how we it's how we have learned as parents through other parents.  You know, I mean, I remember when Adam was five, and we started, you know, doing this, this whole, this whole journey and it was some of the other parents that helped steer us through some of those early things and some of the scary things that we had to deal with moving forward and, you know, having other parents who had been through it to help us I mean, you can call therapy, you can call it guidance, you can call it, you know, connecting teamwork, whatever it is. Those experiences help us as parents, as much as the athletes on the ice help our kids with being with the other athletes. You know, that's something that, you know, it's really that's where the family really comes into play. It really is a complete family when you're involved with these sports and getting involved. It's the entire family that's gaining so much from all of this from sport and being involved in sport.

Chris Keicher 20:35

Yeah, I mean, we talked about camaraderie with the players on the court or on the ice. It becomes a camaraderie with the parents in the stands. You know, I remember in 2019, and that the last game with Emily was sled hockey, and they won the gold medal, and they won the championship in her league. Here you are, you're high fiving and hugging the person next to you, you don't know, you know, you've been with them, you know, but it was it was like a whole, everybody was just so elated. Obviously, the players on the ice were elated, but the parents in the stands were just high fiving and hugging, seeing tears in everybody's eyes. And, you know, it's a camaraderie thing for everybody who's involved.

Jeanne Langan  21:14

It's great. So, we've talked a lot about sports, where your children played in them, but tell me about some of the recreational activities you might do as a family. Maybe Steve with boating or golfing or things like that, where you're playing with them.

Steve Spitz  21:30

You know, I just try to get out with them in any way I can. If it's not full participation, at least I'm there, you know, and can help, you know, can add my two cents. I can, you know, enjoy watching them. It doesn't have to be full participation for me to enjoy it, you know, for them to just, you know, they want you they want you there regardless. Now, we've done boating together, you know, if they're golfing, I'm out there in the cart, you know, in the cart or wheeling along the cart paths, trying to enjoy it with them. So, you know, any way you can find to be involved, you know, whether it's full participation or not.

Chris Keicher  22:13

And I know with Emily, her and I, we've gone to the driving range, where we'll go to the driving range and I’ll put her in her wheelchair, push her up to the tee, I'll set the ball on the tee, and she'll take her club, line it up and then she'll just hit golf balls off a tee.  Then, I'll wheel her off and then I'll go and hit some and then we kind of just alternate back and forth. So, I always love that, especially in the summertime where we have that opportunity to go out and do that.

Liz Keicher  22:41

And we do a good amount, most certainly a little more pre-COVID, but we do a lot of traveling for marathons. We try to find marathons they have kids races. So, Emily will do a kids race on the day before or do like a one mile and family will travel in from out of town, so she kind of, she's out there, you know, doing like a one. She did a Marine Corps Marathon, was a mile and four on crutches and then Philadelphia Marathon, I think was close to that too. The Buffalo Marathon, she always participates in some fashion. So, running is kind of like a family sport and it's great that she's able to do that. She can transition that now to doing pushrim. You know, I know in my head, I think about the day that she's ready to do a half marathon or a full marathon. I can, she can be doing pushrim and I can be substantially far behind her, hoping, hoping that I can cross within an hour of her finishing it. 

Chris Keicher  23:37

I'll be holding the sign.

Norm Page  23:41

We've done Wii golf together and we did Ride for Roswell last year together and bowling and things like that. I think the other thing we've been so fortunate with as a family is, you know, the traveling together, the amount of time we spent on the road together and you know, being able to be at, we missed next to nothing as far as everything that he's done and where he's traveled. And, you know, we've done this as a family and with the local program. I think that, you know, I think the one thing sport does for a family is you know, spending that time together. I mean, if we weren't in sport, I know we wouldn't have. I mean, we all, you know, we were together since, you know, the weekends and the time we spent on the road and all those things, that's family time. I feel bad for families that never had the opportunity to spend, you know, countless hours in the hotel rooms and at the games and in home from when he was, you know, just a little boy to you know, when he was winning some gold medals and it's just, you know, his mom and I, you know, to be able to do that with him, it's been an amazing experience. Yes.

Jeanne Langan  25:07

That's great. Anything else you want to share with the listeners out there that we haven't touched on yet?

Norm Page  25:15

I would just say keep trying sports. You know what, if it's something you want to do, do it.  Go out, you can do it, there's a way you can do it and don't let anybody tell you you can’t. I mean, there's things you can do and we can adapt sport of any kind in any way. Most of it has been done and, you know, look for it out there, wherever you may be. If it's not in Buffalo and Western New York, you know, it's out there across the country. If it's not out there, go start it yourself. Make it happen. Sports does so much for all of our, all of our kids and all of our adults and all of our veterans and so go try it.

Emily Keicher  25:57

Yeah, like Norm said, if there's not a sport that you, that there is and you need to adapt to it, just try to find time to adapt to it yourself. Make your own sport. Do what you love.

Jeanne Langan  26:11

All right. That's a wonderful statement to end on and I'll just remind listeners, that we have Episode One and Two, that covers athletes in the sports they've been in, and how to get equipment, and just about equipment in general. So, thank you, everybody. If there are suggestions for podcast topics or questions for the athletes, please contact us through Greater Buffalo Adaptive Sports. You can reach them through their web page or find them on Facebook. Or you can also reach us through the Rehabilitation Science Department at the University at Buffalo. I’m faculty there and my email is jlangan@buffalo.edu. Thank you to everyone at the UB libraries for helping to produce this podcast. Thanks for listening to the adaptive sports and recreation in Western New York podcast. Have a great day.