Club Spartiate Beauval Basketball: an inclusive club that has become a benchmark in adapted sports

An association founded in a village in the Somme region… which has become an ambitious inclusive project

Can you tell us about the association?

Yes, it’s the Spartiate Beauval basketball club. It’s a club that was founded six years ago in a small village in the depths of the Somme region.

The basic idea was to be a club that offered former players the chance to get back into physical activity. But that’s not how it turned out at all, because I’m also a special needs teacher. In fact, there were requests from young people I was working with to play a sport other than soccer, which was kind of king where I work, and that’s how it came about.

I went to meet with the club because I had just moved to the village. We talked and decided to open the club to children with disabilities.

After a year, people started talking about us a little. So some people came to see me and said it would be great if the club joined the French Adapted Sports Federation. It would be great to open up more opportunities.

We got caught up in the game. Then, little by little, this club really became a benchmark for adapted sports on the court.

Unlike many other clubs, this club was created and built around disability. It then opened its doors to able-bodied people, whereas often it’s the other way around.

Often, it’s a traditional club that suddenly decides it could organize something around disability for moral or financial reasons, because that helps too. But here we are, it was really the opposite: we focused on disability and then told people to come.

Basketball as a pretext for living together

Basketball has become a kind of pretext for meeting people, well-being, and living together. But also for the inclusion of young boys and girls with disabilities. And then it really took off.

Development of women’s sports and creation of S-Ball

At the same time, we have developed women’s sports because there is no provision for them in our area, or at least no real provision.

Together with the club members who founded the club, we created a sport called S-Ball. It’s basically fitness and step aerobics, but with basketball movements.

We are delighted to welcome around fifty members on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.

The basketball school and gender diversity

We recently opened a basketball school for children. We have around thirty children who play every Monday evening at the club, and since January 2026 we have entered a team of under-11s in the league.

What makes our team special is that it is mixed, with boys and girls playing together.

When young people with disabilities become supervisors

We also work extensively with the club in high schools, middle schools, and elementary schools, where young people with disabilities supervise workshops and ensure that everything runs smoothly.

This usually makes a big impression because these are young people with disabilities who are capable of playing an important role. They take on a supervisory role, a caring role, explaining and demonstrating to children and teenagers.

A project focused on early childhood

We will soon be turning our attention to early childhood, ages 12-36 months, where we will set up psychomotor workshops around basketball, supervised by young girls with intellectual disabilities who will also ensure that everything runs smoothly with babies and toddlers.

That’s a little bit about our club project.

How many members do you have today?

We have about 50 women playing S-Ball. We currently have just over 70 members in adapted sports.

The big news this year is that we have opened an adult section. On Saturday mornings from 10:30 a.m. to noon, we have adults coming for the first year.

We have between 30 and 50 people playing basketball.

Keep in mind that this is a club that started with 10 people in 2020.

What would you like to offer on Nohô?

On Nohô, I would like to showcase the unique structure of our club.

Our club has become a place where the possibilities are endless and where we seek out potential partnerships and encounters that could allow people to discover new things and allow us to grow in our thinking and practice, and to learn from others.

When I discovered Nohô, I visited the website to see a little bit about who does what and thought, “This is interesting, we need to talk.” Conversely, it might be interesting to exchange ideas and reflect together.

Conclusion

The Club Spartiate Beauval Basketball is not just a sports club. It is a social project built around disability, which has become a model of inclusion, diversity, and innovation in rural areas.

From adapted sports for young children to women’s sports and educational initiatives, the club demonstrates that basketball can be much more than just a game: it can be a real lever for social change.