• 10 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE

    Hard-work, Pays off! Changing Lives, Once Bounce At A Time!

  • Nonprofit organization that offers dynamic sports training, encouraging good
    sportsmanship, and overall growth and development for
    special needs youth and young adult athletes.

  • it’s time for changes

    Building Our Future Together!

    Get Involved

Why Special Needs Academy?

Special Needs Academy is designed to support the special needs athlete and youth to grow and develop their abilities through consistent structured sports, and social interactions. We offer strength and skills training for basketball for all types of abilities, in addition to coaching on etiquette and good sportsmanship. We will support you or your special needs athlete to be able to grow and develop at any level physically, socially or ability.

Strategies Used During Training

Various strategies are used to encourage and engage athletes during the training sessions Including

  • build a rapport with the athlete
  • determine best avenue for communication
  • teaching/coaching through transitions
  • customized strategies based on the athletes needs and abilities
  • sensory adaptations
  • verbal and/or visual cuing
  • modifications based on the athletes abilities


Benefits

Benefits of the training to athletes with special needs include, physical fitness

  • maintaining health weight
  • decrease in maladaptive behaviors
  • balance and coordination
  • fine motor skills
  • overall motor function
  • self-control
  • ability to focus on a task
  • auditory, visual, and tactile skills
  • opportunity for social engagement and create friendships
  • opportunity for community engagement

Additional Social Engagement and Pre-vocational Opportunities

The academy also provides social engagement and volunteering opportunities for individuals with developmental disabilities and intellectual developmental disabilities in the community in an inclusive setting.


Healthy Choices

Quarterly training for athletes and their families focused on nutrition, exercise and healthy living by inviting guest speakers and educators from the community.

Pre-vocational and Volunteer Opportunities

Athletes have the opportunity to participate in vocational activities during fundraising events. Saving Soles for Kids hosts year round activities in gathering shoes, pairing, packing, and inventorying.

Building Community

Our athletes learn to work together, and with the community developing relationships and by giving back. Year round we have opportunities to yabba dabba.

Giving back to the Community

Athletes participate in giving back to the community by participating in the monthly

Leadership Development

Assistant coaching and peer mentoring opportunities are available to those athletes that demonstrate leadership skills or abilities.

Meet our team

Rodrick Matthews

Director

Rodrick Matthews will serve as a director for Saving Soles. Rodrick was an outstanding player in high school at Cole High School in San Antonio and attended Prairie View A&M University on a Army ROTC scholarship. He graduated with a BS in Industrial Engineering. He started the XrossOver Basketball Academy in 2008 while working as an Engineer at Abbott Labs. Rodrick also co-founded the basketball training academy Kingdom Performance in 2014. Rodrick's passion to help kids birthed the motivation to give back to those less fortunate and Saving Soles was born. His wife, currently living in Ethiopia, serve as the coordinator for distributing the donated shoes in this area.

Keith Spencer

Co-Director

Keith Spencer will serve as co-director for Serving Soles. Keith received a full athletic scholarship to the University of Texas-San Antonio(UTSA), where he contributed in charging the dynamics of the roadrunner basketball program. In 2008, Coach Keith graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology. He then signed a contact to play professional basketball for De Friesland Aris in Holland.

Keith has worked with kids as a coach and also co-founded Kingdom Performance. Keith serves on the board of another non-profit working with special needs children and adults and has prided himself on charity. Keith has been married to his beautiful wife Natasha for 6 years and they have a 5 year-old daughter, Sarai.