American Association of Adapted Sports Programs

As the nation's only existing interscholastic league in wheelchair handball. AAASP is proud to recognize the stellar accomplishment of one of its own, and the youngest athlete ever to be named to a USA Wheelchair Handball Team. Congratulations to Najee Smothers from the DeKalb Silver Streaks for being named to the USA National Wheelchair Handball Team! 🇺🇸 Najee will represent Team USA at the 3rd IHF Wheelchair Handball World Championship! The tournament will run from September 16th to 21st in Cairo, Egypt. We will be watching and sharing more as he heads to Egypt on Sept. 11… let’s go, Najee! 🥅

I could not have asked for a more successful and rewarding career or life of purpose. But the time is approaching for another leader to take the reins. I have informed my Board of my intent to retire effective September 1, 2025. Our organization, the American Association of AdaptED Sports Programs (AAASP), is unique among all disability sport organizations. We are not community-based. Instead, for nearly 30 years, AAASP has served as the athletic association and premier protype for America's schools, demonstrating how to fully fund and integrate adapted sports for students with physical disabilities into the traditional interscholastic sport infrastructure. Exactly as their peers, our students letter in their sport at school, enjoy robust and accurate coverage in media across our state and compete with other school systems for state titles. They enjoy gradation rates above 80%, and have received university scholarship to play ball at prestigious universities. The AAASP State Wheelchair Basketball Championship is fully embedded within the (Georgia High School Association) GHSA State Championships, and each year is streamed and/or televised nationally by the NFHS Network and/or all nine Georgia Public Broadcasting stations. AAASP was also the first to develop and launch wheelchair football as a viable interscholastic sport. We could not have achieved all we have for the rights and opportunities of student athletes with disabilities, but for our alliance with the Georgia Department of Education, the Georgia High School Association (GHSA) and partnerships with the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) and the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA). Together, we have designed and hold trainings in-person and online, taken by nearly 3,000 educators, administrators, coaches and advocates. We hold over 100 competition each school year, representing more than 30 weeks of programming. We have provided almost 2.5 million dollars in grants to our members for equipment, training and program inception. And each October, we hold the ASPIRE Awards (Adapted Sports In Recreation and Education) in Atlanta, to honor the outstanding achievements of athletes, advocates, coaches, programs (school and community-based) and media who help us tell our amazing stories in adapted and para sport. (Nominations are open now.) Will you be the next leader of this truly extraordinary organization? Do you have what it takes to lead a movement in education? We offer you a financially strong and solvent not-for-profit, with decades of success and an embarrassment of awards and accolades. We offer an excellent salary with benefits. Find out more about this rare opportunity. See if you have what it takes to live a life of purpose, by making a true difference in the lives of these deserving young people. You will find more and how to apply at our web site under the Job Openings tab. Application Deadline, September 30, 2024.