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Welcome to the Official Dixie Games Website!
Welcome to the Dixie Wheelchair Athletic Association (DWAA)!
The DWAA region includes Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia,
Mississippi, and Florida. This association has a long 30+
year history of providing competitive sports and
recreational opportunities for athletes with physical and
visual disabilities. DWAA started in 1980 with the Georgia
Invitational Wheelchair Games held in Marietta, GA and in
1981 merged with the Alabama Associations to become the
Dixie Wheelchair Athletic Association.
The region has a rich history of the development of sports
for athletes with physical disabilities such as wheelchair
racing through the passion for speed of athletes such as
George Murray, Jimmy Green, and Laverne Achenbach. Early
field athletes include Joe Booth, Bart Dodson, Tommy Hite,
Terry Lee, and Randy Segner and the most acclaimed
weightlifters were Mitch Strickland and Jeanne Wilson.
This enthusiasm to excel in competitive sports necessitated
the evolution of the competition equipment resulting in the
founding of 2 surviving specialty sports equipment
companies: Eagle Sports Chairs and Top End. Along with the
athletes, others who made the competitions happen (including
the rules) include Doug Brush, Sherry Crooks, Bryna Helfer,
Joe Little, David Morris, Linda Priest, Ronnie Pulley,
Stephanie Orr, Les Rothman, Margie (Sloan) Staton, Donnie
Sloan, and Barb (Leidheiser) Trader. Ronnie Pulley and Les
Rothman were instrumental in developing the National
Wheelchair Officials Associations (NWOA) to certify
officials.
Many national and international championships have been held
in this region. The 1996 Paralympics were in Atlanta,
Georgia for the first time held immediately after the
Olympics. This lead to the formation of United States
Disabled Athlete Fund with the program BlazeSports. Other
national championship events include basketball, quad rugby,
swimming, boccia, and the National Junior Disability
Championships.
DWAA region is home to MANY adapted recreational and
competitive sports programs such as Georgia Blazers,
Lakeshore Foundation, Methodist Sports Program, MidSouth
Adaptive Sports & Recreation Program, Paralympic Sports
Tampa Bay, and Shepherd Center Sports Teams. We hope this
website will serve as a resource to you for available
programs in our area which includes the annual Dixie Games.
Matt Edens
Dixie BOD Chairperson
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