University of Pittsburgh wheelccc | Page 25

Student Participant Recruitment The Wheelchair Performance Protocol is open to all students who are interested in partici- pating in wheelchair basketball athletics. Creation of the program will help provide aware- ness and opportunities for students with disabilities, to become involved in athletic competi- tion. The idea of the program was to educate and equip interested students with proper ex- ercise performance modalities that will correlate to increased performance in wheelchair basketball athletics. The exercise modalities and assessments are significantly placed in or- der throughout the program so that each performance session is a proper progressed and limits potential injuries from overtraining the students. Due to the University of Pittsburgh being so large and with rugged we will first market stu- dents with disabilities on campus with assistance from the student affairs office. We will present the protocol to those already involved in the weekly wheelchair basketball program at the University of Pittsburgh. We will also use flyers, student emails, message boards and word of mouth to help spread the message across campus and to all interested individuals. To begin participation in the program students must be assessed through wheelchair move- ments and modalities. Interested able bodied students will be taken through similar assess- ments. For marketing strategies, we will not only use facts and education as mentioned above but also emphasizing a unique program tailored toward building performance and fitness for students wanting to begin wheelchair basketball participation. We encourage all students to participate to help increase personal fitness and subsequently increasing awareness and op- portunities from students with disabilities on the University of Pittsburgh Campus. All University of Pittsburgh students and community are encouraged to participate. 25