By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
ASVEL held an eight-week program at the Astroballe Arena, inviting a group of 14 Special Olympics boys and girls with intellectual and physical disabilities to develop key life skills through the power of basketball.
ASVEL was keen to promote the equality and integration of people with disabilities into society, focusing on topics such as self-confidence, health and hygiene, team spirit and solidarity.
The activities for the children, aged between 15 and 19, were led by the club’s One Team coach Pierre Bressant, who received valuable support from the team’s young French forward, Amine Noua.
And Bressant was delighted with how much joy the children obtained from the program, saying: “It was a great pleasure to see the smiles on their faces.
“At first they were reticent when they got here, but now when it’s time to start the session they come running around the corner shouting: ‘Pierre, we are ready to play basketball!’ That’s the greatest thing in the world for me. It touches me in the heart.”
ASVEL is now already preparing for next season’s activities with One Team, as the club’s General Manager Yohann Sangare said: “Hopefully we will take it to another level next year.”
One Team, supported by Turkish Airlines as the One Team Founding Patron and with the collaboration of Special Olympics as Proud Partner, uses basketball to achieve meaningful social impact in our communities across Europe and is supported by every club in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague and 7DAYS EuroCup.
Since its founding in 2012, the One Team program has already helped more than 16,000 participants through its various team-focused projects.
Source: EuroLeague.net