with “shared basketball” between able-bodied and disabled young people, everyone is a winner

SOn the floor of the Maurice-Boyau gymnasium in Dax, on this morning of Saturday November 16, 2024, smiles, kindness and sharing do honor to sport, without compromising the desire to score and win. Two Saturday mornings per month, the US Dax basketball section organizes a “shared basketball” session between young volunteers from the club and young people with mental disabilities or social isolation. For an hour and a half, they are teammates and opponents during a match.

Senior USD player, Joris Leprat is in almost every session. “Personally, I love it. Everyone mixes together. It also opens up another approach (in the game, Editor’s note),” explains the young 19-year-old basketball player. At his side, Adrien, a teenager diagnosed with autistic disorder. “And you, Adrien, do you like shared basketball? », asks Joris Leprat. ” Yes. I love dribbling. I love it when I pass [le ballon] to the others so that they score the basket,” replies Adrien, for whom it was the second session. “Last week, he scored 12 points,” Joris Leprat enthusiastically emphasizes.

“Shared basketball allows him to be with other young people”

At the beginning, “Adrien wasn’t necessarily into basketball. But since he is accompanied by M^me Duprat, he started to open up, to share the game. I am very, very happy to see Adrien evolving,” his father testifies with pride.

“Humanity”

Marie-Pierre Duprat is the one who initiated these inclusive Saturday mornings. A volunteer in the basketball section of the USD and teacher in a Ulis class (Localized Unit for Educational Inclusion) at Dussarat college in Dax, she submitted the idea of ​​shared basketball sessions to the club. “With the Ulis system, we had set up an adapted basketball team, the students really liked it”, so “we launched” with the club last year on shared basketball and “immediately, we were a hit full “. Both among graduates and young people with disabilities.

“The idea is that it benefits everyone. We have a real match. To the licensees, it shows them that basketball is not just competition, it is also: sharing a moment, adapting technically, adjusting your pass to someone who does not know how to receive it, positioning yourself calmly, having a little humanity, not necessarily wanting to win and being happy when the other scores,” continues Marie-Pierre Duprat.

The kindness was noticeable this Saturday. The effects on young people with disabilities or isolation too. “There is extraordinary kindness from the management team and also from the players,” underlines the mother of a young autistic girl. Sitting on the sidelines to watch her daughter play, she sees her “flourishing”. “She loves basketball. And what is important for her is socialization, because she has no structure and has support at home. Shared basketball allows him to be with other young people. She can’t wait to come back every time,” says the mother. Or when the main thing is more than the two points…