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Princeton Special Sports Keeps Growing As It Enhances Lives On and Off the Field
By Bill Alden
By the spring of 2003, 11-year-old John Diver was sick and tired of seeing his two younger brothers have all the fun when it came to playing sports.
John, who has autism, got signed up to play baseball for Princeton Special Sports (PSS), a volunteer organization created to give special needs children the chance to play youth sports in a setting tailored to their abilities.
When John first started showing up for the Sunday sessions at the Community Park diamonds, he could only hit the ball off the tee. By the end of that first season, he was swatting pitched balls around the field.
More importantly, those Sunday afternoons became the highlight of John's week as he would typically be in uniform, ready to play, hours before heading to the field.
Diver, who branched out to the PSS basketball program this winter, is just one of the many success stories spawned by the organization which has grown from eight players to around 30 and is adding soccer this fall as a third sport.
The PSS program seeks to give the athletes individual attention, utilizing adult coaches and "buddies," local children who are paired up with the players in order to help them better perform on the field or court.
In the view of Ann Diver, John's mother, PSS has improved the quality of her son's life on many levels. "It's really helped John with social interaction," said Diver.
"One part of autism is that kids don't want to reach out. John is more willing to ask for help now, He's more willing to give things a try. Physically, he's much more capable. He had two younger siblings who were going to games and wearing their uniforms all year long. This was his time."
John's growing confidence came through on the basketball court at the PSS hoops program which took place last winter in the Princeton Day School gym. "It was great to see John under the basket and yelling for someone to pass him the ball," recalled Diver with a laugh.
John's success in PSS has impacted his younger brother, Owen, who joined the program as a buddy. "It's helped John a lot," said Owen, who will be starting sixth grade this fall at the Princeton Academy. "Each kid is different in their own way. Some kids need more help than others."
Being a buddy with PSS has Owen looking forward to Sundays as well. "I love to see them go out and play," added Owen. "I've gotten some of my friends to come out and help. It just makes me feel like I am helping people."
The experience of the Diver family with PSS is exactly what Deborah Martin Norcross had in mind when she founded the program in 2001.
"I was watching my kids play in Little League and I wondered if disabled kids could play baseball," recalled Norcross, a local attorney.
"I checked with the Little League and they told me about their Challenger Division, a program for special needs baseball players. I heard that only Nottingham had a program in District 12 so I decided to start one in Princeton. We had eight kids when we started in 2001."
The positive response that Norcross got from the players and the parents led the group to eventually drop out of the Challenger program in order add basketball and now soccer. Currently, the not-for-profit group has around 30 players from ages 4-18, with about half from Princeton and the others coming from such neighboring towns as Lawrenceville and Montgomery.
On a typical session, there will be 25 players, 25 buddies and 10 coaches, assuring that the athletes get the attention they need to progress.
The children are typically split into groups with one segment playing in a game environment and the others working on their skills. The players have a range of needs, with some having physical disabilities and others having cognitive or attention-related disorders.
Norcross is not surprised at how PSS has mushroomed. "It's addictive," declared Norcross, who is currently the PSS President and helped put together the group's website, www.princetonspecialsports.com.
"The kids have so much fun. It's amazing. I just love it when you watch kids who are afraid to go on the field at first or even put on a hat and now they are cheering the other kids on. The camaraderie is great, one of the important parts of this is that they are really a part of a team. They cheer each other."
That support helps the athletes off-the-field as well. "The parents say it carries into other areas," added Norcross. "The kids are just more self confident."
The adults involved certainly enjoy being part of the PSS team. "Every adult who has come out to help has enjoyed it and stayed involved," said Norcross, who has carved out time each Sunday to be on the field with the program. "It's totally infectious. The parents of the players are a huge force. They help us with the kids individually and as a group."
A special component of the group's success has been the work of the buddies. "The buddies have a blast, they really enjoy encouraging the athletes," explained Norcross, who initially got some Little Leaguers she knew to come out and help.
"They have to be patient and responsible and really be able to work with the kids. They also have to be comfortable with adults. They have to talk to the athletes' parents and get a sense of what works for each individual kid. Some kids need to be touched physically to help them focus. Others don't want to be touched, they prefer to be talked through the game."
One of the stalwart coaches of PSS, John Pecora, has been touched to have a major role in the program. "Everybody on the field is on a first-name basis," said Pecora, who also serves as the PSS Vice President. "I'm John out here, not Mr. Pecora. We're not coaches, but friends and buddies."
Pecora, who coached the Princeton Little League 10-year-old All Star squad this summer, enjoys the contrast between the PSS and the highly competitive atmosphere of playoff baseball. "It's much more hands on," said Pecora, referring to the PSS sessions.
"It's hugging the kids and a lot more one-on-one. The kids have a blast, they get such a sense of accomplishment. I have better attendance at the PSS than I did for the All-Stars."
The breakthroughs that Pecora helps draw out of his PSS performers give him a special satisfaction. "When they succeed, it's better than when the All Stars do," said Pecora. "We had a kid named Jamie who didn't hit a free throw for eight weeks in basketball and then hit two in the ninth session. It was high fives all around, it was great."
The joy that Pecora gets out of coaching the PSS athletes has changed his routine. "I can't wait until Sunday," said Pecora, whose son, Philip, serves as a PSS buddy.
"I'm a huge football fan but I've given up watching the NFL. I get a real sense of helping these kids. Some of these kids have been dealt a pretty bad hand and they get to smile for two hours."
It is clear that PSS is providing both the adults and children involved with a lot more than smiles.
