With each competition the team participates in, brings more experience, more comradery, and more opportunity, but perhaps the most important is that each competition brings more advancement toward Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion campus wide. Can you share how many times you and the team have competed in events such as this? We did not compete in , or , as international tournaments were cancelled due to the COVID pandemic. A: In terms of tournament results, it is important to provide a global context.
In the world of Wheelchair Floorball Hockey , we are a developing team. At present time, we are the only actively competing team not only in our state, but also, the United States, North America, and in fact, the Western Hemisphere.
All of the other teams Sweden, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Switzerland, and Belgium are based in Europe, and all but Switzerland compete in domestic league seasons between international tournaments. Being the only team in the Western Hemisphere and given the sheer geographical size of the United States, makes our team reliant on students this is in line with our long-term goal of having a wheelchair floorball team entirely comprised of MSU students with disabilities and local players.
Conversely, the teams we play against have the luxury of drawing from a talent pool that encompasses their entire country. Additionally, unlike other team wheelchair sports such as Wheelchair Basketball, or Wheelchair Rugby, which use a disability-based classification system to ensure fairness in competition along with more equitable access to the sport for individuals with more involved disabilities, the sport of Wheelchair Floorball Hockey and the International Floorball Federation only requires a "minimal handicap' that prevent a player from playing the able-bodied floorball.
As a result of these factors, the starting rosters we face in competition are comprised of players most - if not all - of whom are significantly better than our best player. Moreover, as a recreational Wheelchair Sports program based on a college campus - first and foremost - we prioritize playing students with disabilities.
