The Beauval Spartan Club created a basketball section adapted in 2020. This practice is increasingly attracting young people with intellectual disability. It allows licensees to socialize and progress on their psychomotor problems.
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Basketball 3-3 is a sport of contact with physical intensity in a match that lasts only a few minutes. Half a terrain and a single basket for both teams.
Among them, that of the home for disabled adults in PiROCOURT, in the Oise. Antonin Cocu, Staps student, is the coach. It is formed in the trades of physical activity adapted to mental disability. “”We explain something to them, we ask them if they understood, behind on the ground, it is not seen at all“, He says. So, he repeats the rules of the game, again and again, during the match and even after.”I would ask the instructor if he can explain the game principle to me, because for me the benchmark, it’s complicated“, Slides Jordan, one of the players.
Antonin explains the rules of the game several times, before, during and after the match to guide players with intellectual disabilities. • © Clémence Rousseau / FTV
Intellectual disability has consequences on understanding the rules, but also on the way young people move and are in space. The basketball tournament, disputed that day, is in fact an imagined pretext by Aymeric Nercisse, the president of the Spartans Beauval Basketball club. “”For example, Matéo who will have a certain slowness of execution, he will allow himself to free himself physically, to go a little faster. Earlier, we saw him go up in double paces, at his own pace, Still, it was conclusive, he marked, it was very positive.“
This sports enthusiast created a suitable basketball section in 2020. Each year since its creation, practice attracts. The workforce went from 7 licensees in 2020 to 62 in 2025.
The story begins so five years ago for Aymeric Nercisse. The Samarian is a specialized educator. He works with young girls with mental disabilities. They want to play sports. Aymeric is paid for basketball and an idea germinates in his head: create a basketball section adapted within the establishment in which he works. The project appeals to him, but he quickly faced an infrastructure problem. He does not find a room to welcome his project. At the same time, a club is created in the Somme: the Spartans Beauval Basketball. It benefits from a room capable of welcoming Aymeric and its young sportsmen. Over the discussion, the specialized educator and the managers decide to integrate the sports section adapted to the club.
The adapted basketball section has 62 licensees. • © Spartiates Beauval Basketball
Aymeric thus welcomes adolescents with intellectual disability. He explains: “We do not take care of people affected by physical disabilities. We take care of young people who come from medico-educational institutes (IME) or therapeutic, educational and educational institutes (ITEP)“.
This is the case of these young people who come from the Medico-educational Institute of the Red Cross and who have disorders of the autism spectrum. That day, they spend a day, in a large space that they do not know, with a lot of light, noise and the people they had never seen. Characteristics that could have disturbed them. “”You see, the score, they have nothing to do with it, they lose, but the important thing is to participate, underlines Nicolas Crinon, sports teacher adapted to the IME of the Red Cross in Amiens. It is a day when they discover other young people, when they see young people whom they had already seen on a previous tournament. We saw friendships create for events like that and just for that we take them, it’s the relational and social side. Sport for me is just a mediation tool.“
There is a lot of progress, especially on group socialization.
Aymeric Nercisse, president of Spartans Beauval Basketball
After just over four years of existence, the first results are already visible among licensees. “”There are many improvements, especially on group socialization. Some also make a lot of psychomotor progress. Playing with a ball helps a lot to improve your coordination“, constate Aymeric.
The pride of having participated in the basketball tournament can be read on the faces. Everyone leaves with their medal and a smile that is worth all the trophies in the world. “”There, we know that we succeeded in our day. To see them like that, frankly it’s great“Concludes Antonin.
Edit by Eline Erzilbengoa / FTV
