Minnesota's Rolling Twins to defend their championship title at Wheelchair Softball World Series in Bloomington

NINA MOINI: Right now, the USA Wheelchair Softball World Series is in full swing outside of the Mall of America. The event, hosted by the Courage Kenny Rehabilitation Institute, started this morning and runs through Saturday. The World Series brings together more than 300 athletes and their families from around the world.

And this year, our home team, the Minnesota Rolling Twins, is seeking to defend its 2024 World Series title. You can imagine the event's main organizers, National Wheelchair Softball Association tournament director Jeff Downes and Ryan Trench with Courage Kenny are pretty busy right now, but they took some time to chat with me yesterday about the tournament and the sport's impact on wheelchair bound athletes. Take a listen.

I'd like to start with you, Ryan, if I could. Wow. 300 athletes, 20 teams. I'm curious to know how preparation and setup has been going.

RYAN TRENCH: It's been going really good. I think Jeff's son came into us in January or sometime and said, hey, would you guys want to host the World Series? And we said, well, let's think about it. And then we had Jeff jump on board and assembled a committee. And here we are.

So for the last three days, we've been constructing a softball complex for wheelchair softball in the MOA North parking lot. It's been amazing. It's been fun. We've learned a lot along the way and excited to get the show rolling.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. Jeff, Ryan mentioned your son there, Brendan, who plays for the Minnesota Rolling Twins, and they won the series last year, I understand, and they're attempting a comeback. Tell me a little bit more, if you would, about the team and how your son got involved.

JEFF DOWNES: The team is primarily sponsored by Courage Kenny, and they've been providing adaptive sports to Brendan and his teammates for years and years. Brendan's been playing softball for probably 20 plus years, started when he was a mid-teenager and has just kind of risen through the ranks.

He's a great athlete-- the proud dad moment here-- knows exactly what to do with every ball you give him, whether it's a basketball or softball. It's a lot of fun to watch. And he's been involved on a number of levels, not only as the captain of the Rolling Twins, but also the captain of the USA team, which typically will travel over to Japan every year or so and compete in an international competition.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. So Ryan, Jeff mentioned there the Courage Kenny Rehabilitation Institute. For those who may not be familiar, would you tell me a little bit about the work there?

RYAN TRENCH: Yeah. So it's part of a Allina Health's clinical service line, and it's a comprehensive rehab hospital, inpatient/outpatient services. And I work and our team works in the Adaptive Sports and Recreation Department. So our work is centered around 18 or so recreational and competitive sports for all ages, all abilities. We have some entry level, things like bowling, things like golf, easy entry points for people, all the way up to really high level wheelchair sports and competitive teams.

So the Rolling Twins is one of those teams that travels all over the country and competes at an extremely high level. multiple Team USA players and former Paralympians, hopefully future Paralympians, have come through our program. So our mission within the Sports and Recreation Department is just to continue advancing opportunities for people to live, work, and play and succeed their highest potential.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, it sounds like they're at the top of their game, like you guys said. I hope their success continues. Jeff, though, for people who may never have watched a wheelchair softball game before, would you describe what they could expect to see? And people can come watch, right?

JEFF DOWNES: Absolutely. We invite everybody out to the north parking lot at the Mall of America, just east of IKEA. That's where we have our tournament set up this weekend. But to describe the game, the best way to put it-- Brendan uses this phrase a lot-- picture yourself here. It's the bottom of the seventh. There's two outs. Bases are loaded. The count is full. You're looking out at the fielders, trying to figure out where to put that ball for. For your team to win with the scoring run. At no point did I say "but you're in a wheelchair." It's really the same game with very few modifications.

And it's hardcore. As a parent, you watch this stuff get played. You watch your son get crashed into and tipped over, and you kind of cringe. And then he hops back up to play the next inning. Yeah, it's a little bit like controlled chaos. But everybody that's involved with this sport really enjoys it. It's fun to watch. If you don't know anything about baseball or softball, the physical ability that you're going to see these players do is going to amaze you and hopefully have you walk away with a whole new view on adaptive sports.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. And Ryan, you mentioned that sometimes people feel like they can't pursue all the things that they want to pursue. What is it like watching people realize that they can?

RYAN TRENCH: Yeah, I think that's the reason I'm in the job I'm in today. I started off as an intern in the program and just quickly saw how sports and recreation can have such a huge impact on someone's life, and whether it's someone who is injured later in their life or someone who was born with a disability or something has happened. There's just so much opportunity in adaptive sports and recreation, whether you're doing it for leisure or doing it for a competitive level. So I think just seeing that and where it's taken people and meeting people like Brendan and Jeff and what adaptive sports has meant to their family is the reason I keep doing what I'm doing.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. And Jeff, some people may not that these types of opportunities exist or they might think that it's going to be costly. So I understand there's also this youth adaptive softball clinic that's happening Friday that's going to be free. Would you tell me a little bit more about that and how anyone could participate?

JEFF DOWNES: Right. The Twins Community Fund is coming out with their programs to have one of their local Twins clinics out here. They do several of these around the city. Obviously, most of them are for able-bodied athletes. But this one we're going to probably be blending a little bit both able-bodied and wheelchair users, because really it's the same game. And once we have the wheelchairs on a flat surface like the parking lot that we're playing on, it takes away-- it kind of evens the playing field, to put it that way. Ryan can talk a little bit more towards what the community fund has done with their other camps before.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, Ryan, what do you think about that, just making sure people that these resources are out there and available?

RYAN TRENCH: We're always looking for great partners like the Minnesota Twins Community Fund, because we have to help spread the game to the next generation and continue to build up players who are interested and able to play this sport, amongst many others. So we've partnered with the Twins for a few years now to run these kind of introductory, all-abilities camps. And they've been super successful in just getting people introduced to our programming.

One of our things that we say often is, once we get someone into one of our programs, they're very, very likely to join multiple others and to continue to explore sports and recreation. And so if we can give people easy entry points like this clinic on Friday where they can come out, they can meet us, they can have a good time, they can meet some of the athletes, some of the adult Rolling Twins, then we can get them hooked, right? And then they can choose from there. But it's a good entry point.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. Ryan and Jeff, thank you both just so much for stopping by Minnesota Now and telling us about this, and all the best.

JEFF DOWNES: Thank you very much. We're looking forward--

RYAN TRENCH: Thank you.

JEFF DOWNES: --to a great weekend.

NINA MOINI: I hope they have a great weekend. It's going on now. They're probably having lots of fun. That was Jeff Downes, the tournament director for the National Wheelchair Softball Association, and Ryan Trench, the supervisor of the Sports and Recreation Department at Courage Kenny Rehabilitation Institute. If you want to see the Minnesota Rolling Twins in action, you can find their game schedule and lots more information at mprnews.org.