In Maryland’s Montgomery County school district, “corollary sports” are an opportunity for students with disabilities to play a school sport alongside their peers. The sports, which include bocce and “allied softball,” offer an opportunity for all student-athletes to learn and grow in their own ways while being part of a varsity team.
The district recently added pickleball to their corollary sports offerings, selecting it because of its broad popularity, the opportunity it presents as a lifelong activity, and because of the ease of building teams, where boys and girls play together and each pairing consists of one student with disabilities, and one without.
At Wheaton High School in Montgomery County, students on the pickleball team work together to set up the courts, warm up for matches, and support each other, celebrating their individual and collective wins.
For pickleball head coach Stacy Azizirad, that’s what it’s all about.
“It’s really getting them to feel like they belong and they’re a part of something,” she said.
