This story initially appeared on Behind the Whistle, the official blog of the IWLCA, and is being republished with permission from the organization. Lauren Maness is the head coach at Kennesaw State University.

I am very excited to share the experience our Kennesaw State University women’s lacrosse team had hosting an adaptive lacrosse clinic in our community. Our team, like many other programs, always does some community service engagement projects throughout the academic year. This has and always will be a priority of our athletic department.

Our athletes really enjoy the various projects we have done, and I see the increase in social awareness in our athletes when they participate. In previous years, we were heavily involved with the City of Acworth-Horizon League program.

For those of you not familiar, it is a baseball program that serves the special needs population. The Horizon Athletes get paired with our buddies to play a baseball game. The league plays on a field with a specialized surface and with modified equipment. This makes the game of baseball accessible for athletes with mobility issues and/or cognitive issues and provides a safe and fun atmosphere to play. The director of the program, Lauren Hamm, inquired about adaptive lacrosse because she wanted to increase the opportunities for the Horizon Athletes.

Information on Adaptive Lacrosse can be found on the USA Lacrosse website, which states the following: “We believe there’s room for everyone in lacrosse, including participants with physical and intellectual disabilities. Welcome to adaptive lacrosse. Research tells us that athletes with disabilities benefit from the same training and conditioning as athletes without disabilities, and generally, the same program used for athletes without disabilities can be used for their peers with a disability, with just a few modifications.”

While we were eager to get a service project underway, I was also intimidated by the idea of starting something new and getting it off the ground on top of my day-to-day responsibilities. I hesitantly moved forward, and it really was smooth sailing. My role was really to just connect the correct people to make the first-ever adaptive lacrosse clinic in Acworth, Ga., happen.

I had a conversation with Lou Corsetti, USA Lacrosse Southeast Regional Director, and he had already implemented other adaptive lacrosse programs. He was able to take on the planning of the clinic and provide equipment. The city of Acworth was able to handle the promotions, registrations and field space. KSU lacrosse provided the staffing to buddy up with the athletes and run the stations. Lou had great insight into drills that would be fun and engaging for beginners and how to adapt these skills so every athlete would have fun.

The clinic was great, and the turnout of 30 Horizon Athletes received a fun and engaging introduction to the sport of lacrosse. Our hope was to generate interest by doing the introductory clinic, and our future plans are to offer a few more of these clinics and incorporate other lacrosse teams serving as volunteers. The ultimate goal is to implement a league, as it has been stressed that a pathway to compete in adaptive lacrosse is important and having a multi-week program will truly be impactful for the participants.

The 30 participants varied in age from 6 years old to athletes in their mid-30s, and it was a co-ed group. We separated into stations based on age. The director from the City of Acworth stressed the importance of including the adult division. I learned from her that schools phase out the students receiving special education services by age 21. At that point, the opportunities for this population of young adults are limited, so programming is so beneficial for them to have fun events with their peers and compete.

What I really appreciated was the collaboration from the City of Acworth Recreation Department and USA Lacrosse. We were able to implement this program effectively because of the collaborative effort. We at KSU are excited to continue to grow the game through the adaptive program. I got amazing feedback from participants, their parents and our KSU volunteers. Here is what two of my players said:

McKenzie Jackson: “Doing the adaptive lacrosse clinic was so much more rewarding than I even expected. To be able to teach skills through games and see the joy in everyone’s faces playing the sport we love so much was insane. Everyone that came to the clinic was ready to learn and stayed positive, even when we threw a challenge at them. I think our team learned a lot that day, too. We have to keep pushing and stay positive this season even when we are thrown for a loop or handed a challenge. Super excited to see the sport keep growing!”

Abbey Behn: “It was really awesome to see the game of lacrosse be open and accessible to some people who have never had the opportunity to try it before. It made me happy to see how much fun they had and how much they enjoyed learning how to play!”

I couldn’t be prouder of my team and their desire to give back to the community. I think they made a big impact in many lives that day, and we can’t wait to get back out there again. I would encourage everyone to investigate potential partnerships to grow the game through adaptive lacrosse and to serve their community. We had a blast!