Chicago hosts wheelchair world series featuring players who will ‘make a mark on this world’

As the Chicago Junior Wheelchair Cubs came up short in their quest to win their league world series, coach Dan Ferreira had a question for his team, which include players who have overcome a wide range of physical disabilities.

“Is this as good as you’re ever going to be?” Ferreira asked the team members, some of whom were born with conditions like Osteogenesis imperfecta and others, including now 11-year-old Highland Park parade shooting victim Cooper Roberts, who were thrust into adaptive sports in the last few years..

“Define what excellence means for yourself in this life,” the coach continued. “You’re gonna be grown one day, and you’re gonna make a mark on this world.”

Indeed, just making it to 15th Wheelchair Softball Junior World Series, which was held Saturday at a paved baseball diamond at California Park on the Northwest Side, was a mighty accomplishment. In a nail-biter, the hometown favorites — cheered on by dozens of parents and loved ones — fell 5-2 to the reigning champs, the Kansas City Junior Royals.

Ferreira, who is also the adaptive sports and event coordinator for the Chicago Park District, helped found Chicago’s adaptive sports program 15 years ago — three years after he took the job. It now operates 46 weekends a year.

Though the schedule requires dedication, it keeps the kids — who are between the ages of 6 and 18 — active and busy while also putting them in proximity to successful adults who also use wheelchairs, giving them a glimpse into what the future can hold for them.

“I found home, I found peers, I found role models. I found people like me,” Ferreira, who was also born with Osteogenesis imperfecta, or brittle bone disease, said of finding adaptive sports when he was 14. “We want them to think about what they’ll look like when they’re older. … I want them to know the chair isn’t an impediment to a full, active life.”

Saturday was the Cubs’ first time back in the national championship since 2016, when they shared a championship year with the MLB Cubs over at Wrigley Field.

But Cooper’s mind wasn’t on winning the game — the 11-year-old was just happy to be cheering on his teammates: “I’d rather be here than at home,” he said to a friend after the game.

Cooper was an avid soccer player before he was shot and paralyzed from the waist down, though that only temporarily stopped the multi-sport athlete, who now juggles basketball and hockey alongside softball. He’s found what his coach did years ago.

Soccer “was the only sport I played, I loved it so much, but after my disability, I knew it would be hard to switch sports,” Cooper told the Sun-Times. “If I hadn’t played these sports, I wouldn’t have met these kids. … [So] I don’t care if we win the tournament, I’m just glad to be here.”

The Kansas City Junior Royals and Lincolnway Special Recreation Association Junior Hawks from suburban New Lenox also competed in two days of round-robin competition, the fourth held in Chicago, which included a home run derby and field skills challenges.

But Ferreira dreams of multiple city leagues and a facility of their own one day as the sport continues growing. For now, partner Shirley Ryan AbilityLab provides transportation for the kids living around the city.

Adaptive sports let kids be kids, Ferreira said.

“We’re trying to get wheelchair sports nationwide,” Ferreira’s 10-year-old son Owen, a second baseman, said, expanding on his father’s aspirations. “All my life I’ve been different from everybody, but if the sports were nationwide, it would be more common.”

The acceptance turns inward, too. Cooper encouraged everyone, but especially kids, with a disability to join a sport and find the comfort in community that he did, offering this from his own experience:

“People with disabilities or injuries should play a sport, you can meet new friends with your same injury,” he said. “Don’t be shy, you’ll meet new kids. It’s going to be alright.”