Garafola on the court playing for the L.A. Clippers.

Playing and growing adaptive sports at UCLA and the broader community isn’t just Michael Garafola’s day job — it’s his life. You can find the UCLA adaptive and instructional programs coordinator managing and playing for the L.A. Rams wheelchair football team, shooting threes for the L.A. Clippers wheelchair basketball squad, holding serve in wheelchair tennis and organizing events across campus and Los Angeles. He even earned two tryouts for the Team USA wheelchair basketball team for Paralympic competition. But what fires him up isn’t just playing sports himself — it’s providing opportunities for competition, play and wellness for athletes at every level while changing conversations about adaptive sport in the broader world.

“99 percent of us are not going to be Paralympic athletes but we all deserve to play or compete,” Garafola says. Elite athletes train intensely for years to earn a spot on the Paralympic stage, but for the rest of us the beauty of adaptive sport is that it allows people of any age and ability to enjoy the competitive and community spirit of athletics.

Learn more about Michael — including his discovery of adaptive sports and helping others reach their athletic dreams.

Read the article at the UC Newsroom

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