Disabled people of all ages are being invited to join the Salford Red Devils Foundation as they look to grow and expand their teams to the wider community, ensuring all have access to Rugby League.
Player and coach Heather Robinson said there are three teams – wheelchair rugby league, the physical disability rugby team, and the learning disability league team. Each team is open to men and women and anybody is welcome to have a go.
Head Coach of the Learning Disability and Physical Disability teams, Lee Forbes, talked about the importance of the club for their team
He said: “Disabled people only really get on average about an hour’s physical activity a week. So to have an hour on a Wednesday and a couple of few hours on a weekend, when playing rugby league, is massive. It’s helping them immensely mostly keeping them physically fit. And I personally think is doing wonders for them I think the grand majority are really enjoying their time with us.”
As a member of the Wheelchair and Physical disability teams Heather explained: “As you know, disabled people are less likely to become involved in sport. And you see your peers being able to go out and play sports, especially when you’re younger. But to have the chance to do that, the same as anyone else is amazing, you know, especially like the wheelchair game, it’s becoming massive now.
“And anyone can play, abled bodied people can play alongside people with disabilities. So we get into families that want to play together which its great.”
In regards to the learning disability team Heather spoke on the growth and importance of the players. “It gives the opportunity to people who don’t normally get to have that social or the team dynamics that’s probably the most important part of it because, to see kids and adults come along to the training and sometimes they’ve never caught a ball before, they’ve never played any form of sport before.
“To see them grow in that way in their ability to play is amazing. But then equally, it’s really great to see them grow in kind of more social skills and interacting, going on the bus to games and spending time with their friends. Its amazing there’s loads of friendships that have been forged between people that just wouldn’t of happened before.”
Currently on their third season, Lee explained how they first started and grew into the team they are today.
“After the Salford foundation founded the team, trying to help people in the community with learning disabilities and all physical disabilities become more active and to play rugby league when we first started we had about eight players. We had to start with another team in the beginning, Bradford Bulls, we called ourselves Red Bull at the time. Obviously, Salford Reds and Bradford Bulls.
“So we did a joint venture for the first season, and we didn’t win a game all season between the two of us. But, we fully enjoyed it, then this year just gone we got a standalone with 18 registered players, some came all the way from South Wales. We came seventh in the league, winning four games, which is better than we did last year so happy days!”
SportEngland claim that one in five people in England have a long-standing limiting disability or illness. Our Active Lives Adult Survey data shows disabled people are almost twice as likely to be physically inactive (43 per cent), compared with those without a disability (23 per cent).
Lee addressed the support the Physically Disabled Rugby League team receives. “We have a support from the foundation, we have support from the club itself. That’s what has been massive in helping us gain traction and finding players. We tend to put a lot of it on the media pages like Facebook and Twitter. So that’s helps us gain players.
“So next year is bigger and better we’re going to try again the next year we’re going to go with more players, which would get more traction and go again for a better position in the league.”
The positivity and inspiration that Salford Red Devils radiates can be summed up by Heather: “We feel like we only lose if we don’t learn anything, the most important thing for us is to make sure that everyone gets on that pitch and comes away smiling.”
If this has sparked your interest contact Heather at heather.robinson@salfordreddevils.net to find out more.
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