Meet Michael Rosenkrantz of Southern Arizona Adaptive Sports

Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Rosenkrantz.

Michael, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
From March 2009-August 2016, I lived in India and Nepal. In India, I was a VSO volunteer with the National Trust, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India. We worked with 900 non-profit agencies working in the field of developmental disabilities throughout India. When I visited the US in the summer of 2011, I met a man named Dan Altan, who along with colleagues Pete Hughes and Greg Hockensmith were, in their spare time, operating a small non-profit called Wheelchair Athletes Worldwide. I met Dan in San Diego and he indicated that WAW would be interested in doing a project in India. This would involve donating sports wheelchairs and doing a clinic. After I returned to India I started working on this.

In November 2011, Greg, his wife Shelly and Pete came to India. We donated 11 sports wheelchairs and did two clinics, one in New Delhi at a school call Amar Jyoti and one in Vizag in the south of India. This got me started in coaching wheelchair basketball. I moved to Nepal in June 2012 and started coaching wheelchair basketball there. In May 2013, WAW came to Kathmandu where we also donated chairs and did a clinic.

In 2016, I was working for World Jewish Relief, helping farmers to connect with markets and realized that it was time to move back to the US. I spoke with Pete, who is the University of Arizona Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Team head coach and asked if I could come and learn. He said yes and for the 16-17 season, I was an Assistant Coach.

I thought that when I came back to the US everything would be connected for people with disabilities in terms of sports. But it wasn’t.

I was fortunate in that while I was still in Nepal Pete introduced me to Mia Hansen. I live in Mia’s brother’s home in Tucson. Mark had an accident when he was 21 and became quadriplegic. Both Mia and Mark had always been involved with sports. Mia had been thinking about the need for an adaptive sports non-profit for some time. After we talked, we got more people involved and SAAS was born. We have a 10 member board of directors, including a gold medal Paralympian Jenn Poist, who plays wheelchair basketball.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
We incorporated in May 2017. We are now in the process of organizing, coordinating and doing fundraising. We feel that there are numerous opportunities for us in develop a wide range of adaptive sports. As of now, we offer basketball, Tucson Lobos, D3 team, (I’m the head coach) and a brand new women’s team the Arizona Storm. We also offer hand cycling through a partnership with Velovets and wheelchair tennis. In the future we will be offering other sports.

It’s always a bumpy road in starting something new. One has to develop partnerships, find funding and be very focused on making things happen.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Southern Arizona Adaptive Sports – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Southern Arizona Adaptive Sports mission is to support the community through promotion and provision of fitness, recreation, and competitive sports opportunities for people with disabilities. We are fortunate in southern Arizona to have the University of Arizona Disability Resource Center training elite athletes. But what was missing in southern Arizona was an organization dedicated to community adaptive sports, which SAAS fills.

Given that we are only a few months old, we already are offering a variety of sports. Putting adaptive sports under a common umbrella will enable us to bring the community together. We will offer a wide range of opportunities for anybody with a disability to participate in.

We are very proud of the accomplishment of the Tucson Lobos in being invited to attend Nationals in April 2017.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
We feel that we have a very bright future in partnering with individuals, businesses, other non-profits and persons with disability in providing a wide range of opportunities for people with disability to play sports and developing/maintaining healthy lifestyles.

We are very excited about the prospects for Southern Arizona to become a mecca for adaptive sports.

We will continue to grow in order to offer opportunities for anyone to participate. We have a home Tucson Lobos basketball tournament scheduled for Veteran’s Day weekend. We are looking forward to going to National again in April 2018. We are excited about having a woman’s team in Arizona the Arizona Storm. Our bi-weekly hand cycling rides are attracting more people. We are also excited about our weekly wheelchair tennis group.

Contact Info:

• Phone: 5202444575
• Email: mikerlakers@yahoo.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/accessibletucson/

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