FLUSHING, N.Y. (May 18, 2019) - The City University of New York Athletic Conference is excited to announce that it is forming a CUNY Wheelchair Basketball Team, which will compete as a varsity program in the 2019-20 academic year.

The announcement was made at a press conference at the conclusion of Saturday's CUNY Wheelchair Basketball Clinic at Queens College.

The press conference featured a question-and-answer session and introduced National Wheelchair Basketball Association All-Star Ryan Martin as the team's first head coach. He was presented with a commemorative CUNY jersey, after being named CUNY's Advisor for Inclusive Sports earlier this week.

"My foundation has created a sustainable program in Europe and the Northeast, and now we are setting our sights on creating one here (at CUNY), as an intercollegiate model," Martin stated. "We hope the model that we develop at CUNY becomes a model that other universities across the country can use and apply to their particular campuses."

Martin will be tasked with leading the first-ever varsity wheelchair basketball team on the Eastern seaboard. Until today, the closest varsity collegiate program in the East had resided at Edinboro University in Western Pennsylvania.

In an effort to help get the program off its feet, Martin teamed up with PER4MAX and U.S. Paralympics to donate 10 high-performance wheelchairs to the cause (worth up to $50,000).

"It's such a source of tremendous pride for us. CUNY is a first-choice destination for students with disabilities to pursue the promise of higher education," said CUNY Interim Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Christopher Rosa. "We have more than 11,000 students with disabilities enrolled at CUNY, and there is nothing more affirming and validating of their opportunity to participate richly in all aspects of university life, than to make sure that they have really robust co-curricular opportunities. Intercollegiate athletic opportunities are among the most affirming, high-profile ways to demonstrate that students with disabilities at CUNY have equal access and opportunity to participate in every aspect of university life."

VC Rosa also remarked: "It's a game-changer for us to have a formal partnership with a tremendous leader in inclusive athletics like Ryan Martin. He has got tremendous vision and built programs before. He is going to serve as an architect to help us map out the steps that we need to take to develop a truly-competitive intercollegiate athletic program that is high quality and that allows our students to compete on a national level."
 
"At the end of the day, it is about sports, but it's also about getting individuals and students with disabilities to enroll in school and graduate. Sports is a great vehicle for great success," Martin concluded.