Gregg Baumgarten
2018
Gregg’s journey into the adapted sports world began upon graduation from the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse. With no teaching prospects, he bought a backpack and sleeping bag and started hitching to visit his brother Tim in Arizona. Easily distracted, Gregg spent two months hitching and hiking through Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Utah before arriving in Arizona with $30 in his pocket. As fate would have it, there were many teaching opportunities in Arizona so he borrowed some clothes, went to an interview, got the job and called his mother to ship his clothes from Wisconsin. So began his career teaching physical education to kids with disabilities.
Gregg saw there were no competitive opportunities for so many of his students who had physical disabilities and were in AP classes and honor roll. The need to create an avenue for these kids to address their natural competitiveness and fitness was obvious. So he founded Mesa Sports for Disabled (aka Arizona Disabled Sports) with his good friend Mark Grant. MASD was a unique collaboration of the school district/city parks and recreation/community that worked to provide coordinated resources for programming. In 1991, the Mesa Public School District became one of the first school districts in the country to award varsity athletic letters to athletes in the adapted sports programs. As part of their effort, the two created an event called the Desert Challenge Games, which started with about a dozen kids on a high school track and grew into one of the largest annual adapted sports events in North America. They also created opportunities like the SkiAble learn to ski clinic and the first ever National Power Soccer Tournament in the USA.
Gregg became more involved with Wheelchair Sports USA and the USCPAA in the early-90’s. He was Games Director for six Far West Wheelchair Regionals and in 1997, he directed his first Junior Nationals. Gregg would eventually be Games Director for four Junior Nationals, two in Arizona and two in his native Wisconsin. In addition, with his brother Tim as a partner, they founded the Adaptive Sports USA Veteran’s AirGuns Outreach Program, providing wounded and injured veterans across the country with recreational opportunities.
Another contribution was the assistance he provided to new and upcoming disabled sports organizations in their formative years. Cindy Housner reached out when founding GLASA in Chicago, Clayton Frech with Angel City Sports in Los Angeles, the Dakota Para Games, the Utah Beehive Games and Dairyland Sports, which was created as a legacy organization in Wisconsin after the 2016-17 Junior Nationals.
Gregg served for eight years on the Board of Directors of Disabled Sports USA and Chairman of the BOD of Adaptive Sports USA for six years. He served on the Athletics for All Task Force working to ensure equal opportunity in the schools for our athletes. He was also a co-creator of the SportsAble Management (SAMS) software and instituted the Adaptive Sports USA National Conference in 2014.