CVR Special Olympics Basketball Standouts Tryout for Team New Jersey

EATONTOWN, N.J. - Aug. 16, 2013 - PRLog -- Eatontown, NJ – Five players from the Center for Vocational Rehabilitation’s (CVR) Special Olympics basketball team tried out to represent Team New Jersey at next year’s USA Games. The tryouts took place at Rider University and featured over seventy of the best special needs basketball players from across the state. 

“Our players, who were invited here today, earned it in every way,” said Travis Johnson, Head Coach of the CVR Crusaders basketball team. “They have spent countless hours practicing to be better basketball players, but more importantly and more impressively to me, they have committed to being better teammates, better players and better men in their everyday lives. For them, being a CVR Crusader is a lifestyle and they represent everything positive about sports.”

The basketball team was started by Russell Anderson, CEO/President of CVR, as part of an ongoing initiative to increase opportunities for CVR’s special needs participants. Though the team has only been around a few years, they have played at the Prudential Center twice and, this past season, they advanced to the Special Olympics championship tournament in Wildwood, finishing an impressive second.

“The response from our special needs participants has been extremely positive; many of them had not been given an opportunity to play team sports before. Once given the chance to play, they received all the benefits of team sports participation that many of us take for granted,” Anderson explained. “The success of the Crusaders on and off the court is a testament to the power and will of people with special needs, if you just give them a chance. The members of the Crusaders basketball team are truly ambassadors for our entire organization and their success is shared by everyone here at CVR.”

Founded in 1954, the Center for Vocational Rehabilitation (CVR) has provided what people with disabilities need most for their self-respect and the esteem of others: WORK.  CVR facilitates personal growth and helps bring dignity and respect to the people it serves through a variety of vocational and partial-care rehabilitation programs. For more information about CVR, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit, please visit: http://www.cvrus.org.