THE US volleyball coach Eric Hodgson thinks that getting to the Paralympics is not impossible for the Filipino athletes who are into sitting volleyball.
“It will take a lot of hard work. If the program will be continuous Paralympics is not far down the road,” Hodgson, a CAP Level III instructor, told a pair of sports scribes yesterday.
Hodgson, together with the Philippine Accessible Disability Services Inc. (Pads) and in partnership with the Southwestern University (SWU-Phinma), is currently doing a three-day sitting volleyball seminar and demo at the Aznar Coliseum.
The activity, that started yesterday, was attended by PWDs and Physical Education teachers.
Pads executive officer John Paul Maunes said that one of the long term plans is to form a sitting volleyball team composed of PWDs and probably stage a tournament.
“The tournament may not be perfect as exactly planned but the important thing right there is you start something. Through time you will see the number of teams increase and soon get 10 teams competing,” said Hodgson.
Hodgson, a volleyball coach for 18 years and has been working with the Arizona region for the last 13 years, leads the seminar participated in by more than 30 players.
“Once you try sitting volleyball, you want to keep on playing it. It is now up to Pads to continue the development by creating impact through tournaments,” he said.
The sitting volleyball is one of the sports contested in the Paralympic Games.
Maunes said that aside from sitting volleyball, Pads plans to introduce hand cycling, wheel chair basketball and standup paddle to the PWDs. (RSC)