The talent opportunity hiding in plain sight |
October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month. In sports, that should prompt a conversation that extends beyond who gets to play.
It should make us think about who gets to work.
I have watched that question play out through the experience of Taylor Esposito, a neurodivergent athlete in the American Special Hockey Association community. Taylor loves hockey, understands hockey and sees the game in ways that can be valuable to the people responsible for winning hockey games.
But his first job with the Federal Prospects Hockey League’s Binghamton Black Bears was opening and closing the locker-room door.
There is nothing wrong with that job. The problem was that it represented only a fraction of what Taylor was capable of contributing.
Taylor knew that. So, he advocated for himself.
Eventually, the Black Bears gave him the opportunity to track what was happening during games — player movement, shots, scoring opportunities and patterns developing on the ice. He combined data collection with his own observations about the game.
The information proved useful. Head coach Brant Sherwood asked him to stay with the organization through........