Angel City Sports

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Angel City Sports

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Angel City Sports began in June 2013 when Clayton and Ezra Frech were on the track at the Endeavor Games in Oklahoma City and asked the question, “Why do we need to come to tornado alley to run, jump, and throw things? Why aren’t there more programs in Southern California?”

This began our journey to create the Angel City Games, Southern California’s own multi-sport Paralympic style competition and celebration of Adaptive Sports. In October 2014, we found a facility and programming partner in UCLA Recreation and set about to create a one-of-a-kind competition and event experience for youth and adults with physical disabilities.

The first Angel City Games in June 2015 were tremendously successful, with 150 athletes participating in Track & Field and Wheelchair Basketball clinics and competition. Over 1,300 attendees came through over the 2 day event; Hollywood stars Adam Sandler and Christian Bale and several pro athletes were on-hand to cheer the athletes and participate in our Celebrity Wheelchair Basketball Game; and our media partners at Fox Sports AM 570 – LA’s largest sports radio station – broadcast live from the track at UCLA’s Drake Stadium during the event. The first Angel City Games exceeded all of our expectations and were a huge hit with families, volunteers, sponsors, partners, and most importantly with the athletes, many of whom participated in Adaptive Sports for the first time.

Upon wrapping up the 2015 Games and recognizing the tremendous barriers that exist for this community to become active and participate in sports, we expanded our vision and pivoted our brand to Angel City Sports. We hope to address the myriad of challenges that exist – lack of events, programs, training, and coaches, transportation and access, the high cost of equipment, and the expansive geography of Southern California – and spark the Paralympic and Adaptive Sports movement in our community.

Today we’re offering a year-round schedule of introductory adaptive sport clinics, giving athletes opportunities to participate, learn and train in a variety of sports. We’ve expanded the Angel City Games from two to four days, adding new sport clinics and competitions including Archery, Swimming, Wheelchair Tennis, Track & Field, and Wheelchair Basketball. We’re building an inventory of Adaptive Sports equipment to be loaned or rented to other programs and individuals who want to get into the game. As more participants join us throughout the year at clinics and events we look forward to learning about their goals and aspirations to participate in Adaptive Sports.

The mission of Angel City Sports is to create sports opportunities for adults, children, and veterans with physical differences and impairments. Our goals are to encourage physical ACTivity and demonstrate LEADership to strengthen the adaptive sports movement. Our initial programming focus is on Southern California, but our events and programming will draw athletes from all over the country.

ACT
Access to Equipment – Maintain an inventory of Adaptive Sports equipment to minimize equipment barriers.
Competition – The Angel City Games, Southern California’s own Paralympic-style multi-sport competition.
Training – Host and coordinate introductory sport clinics, athlete training and development programs.

LEAD
Leadership – Lead the Adaptive Sports community through partnerships, collaboration and resource sharing.
Ecosystem – Connect athletes and partners to spark the Adaptive Sports movement.
Awareness – Increase awareness of Adaptive Sport and the Paralympic movement through all types of media.
Development – Develop and share athlete stories to grow the Paralympic movement.

Angel City Sports is addressing a significant societal problem that there is a large population of individuals living with physical challenges in Southern California, yet participation rates in adaptive sports programs are extremely low as a percentage of the disabled population. Even making the assumption that there were 50 strong adaptive sports programs that each had 1,000 athletes in Los Angeles and Orange County, therefore there were 50,000 known athletes participating in adaptive sports programs, this would amount to only 3% of the 1.7 M that have trouble walking or climbing stairs. In reality, the numbers are significantly worse, as there are roughly 10-15 programs, each with 100 athletes at most, in Southern California.

Activities

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Adaptive Badminton/Para-Badminton

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