Occupational therapy student finds a home in adaptive sports

Sophie Reynolds
Thu, 26 Mar 2026 02:09:34 +0000
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Emma Wolak (left) stands with other Ohio State students involved with Columbus’ Recreation and Parks Department. Credit: Courtesy of Andrea Norris

Emma Wolak’s first days volunteering for an adaptive sports program was not on the sidelines, but participating in the action of the Columbus Knights wheelchair basketball team.?

Wolak, a third-year grad student in occupational therapy, said the coach of the team had her enter an athletic wheelchair and attempt to play the game.?

“I’m not good at even able-bodied basketball,” Wolak said. “The next day my shoulders were on fire, cause I mean, there’s so much. It’s like a whole other layer of basketball. It gets crazy.”

Wolak volunteers with Columbus Parks and Recreation, which has an adaptive sports programming designed to be accessible for disabled athletes. This programming includes wheelchair basketball, rugby, boccia and more, per prior Lantern reporting.?

Wolak said she is doing her capstone project with Columbus Parks and Recreation, designing a program based off of research she has previously done.?

“We did a really thorough literature review of kind of what we wanted our actual project to be,” Wolak said. “I did mine on basically how adaptive sports can impact the overall quality of life for, specifically, kids and adolescents with disabilities.”?

Wolak said this led to her creating a four-week youth class for kids ages six to 18 to teach them about different adaptive sports. These classes happen every Tuesday night until April 14 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the ESPY Adaptive Sports Complex.?

“It’ll be probably a different sport every week. Very introductory, basic skills,” Wolak said. “Not only [will it] provide [disabled children] an opportunity to play sports in which they might not have the opportunity elsewhere, [but] I really want to make something that’s gonna be a positive impact in other areas of their life too.”

Columbus Parks and Recreation is always searching for volunteers, said Andrea Norris, the therapeutic recreation manager for the organization.?

“For all of our adaptive sports, our special events, our tournaments that we host, there are a handful of opportunities where it’s super helpful for us to have more support,” Norris said. “Our volunteers fill a big role for that.”

The amount of volunteer slots fluctuate depending on the program and event, Norris said. For example, she said a tournament needs at least one score keeper for each court with an actively running game.?

“With our rugby tournament, we just had one court, but sometimes we have two courts for that,” Norris said. “Then, for our upcoming boccia tournament in April, we’ll have six courts. So our volunteer needs for the boccia tournament are much greater than we had for the rugby tournament.”?

Wolak volunteered for the wheelchair rugby tournament that happened on Feb. 7-8.

“For the tournament it was definitely a lot of event set-up but I was also a scorekeeper,” she said. “It’s a very fast-paced game, so there was a learning curve to that.”

Outside of scorekeeping and event set-up, volunteers can aid coaches, pass out snacks and lunches during longer tournaments and run check-in for the event, Norris said.?

Wolak said she could see adaptive sports tying into her future career as an occupational therapist.?

“[Occupational therapy is] kind of looking at whoever you’re working with and figuring out what it is they want to do or need to do. So that could be things like everyday tasks, like brushing their teeth,” Wolak said. “So if [a patient says], ‘I really want to get back to, participating in sports,’ I feel like I have a really good perspective.”

Wolak said she recommends volunteering in adaptive sports, especially if you’re going into a medical or disability-related career.?

“For anyone who’s an undergrad who’s, you know, [pre-occupational therapy], [pre-physical therapy], like pre anything and kind of in healthcare, that’s a great thing to kind of be involved in,” Wolak said. “It’s a different side of sports and athletics than people might be used to.”?