About Me
My name is Ishaan Sethi and I love playing sports. When I was 6 years of age, I wanted to play ice hockey. My parents, who don’t even know how to skate, took me to skating lessons and promised me that if I learned how to skate I could start playing ice hockey. Much to their surprise, I learned how to skate and then held them to their promise. My parents had to figure out what equipment to buy but my story had an additional twist. As a member of the Sikh religion, I am not able to cut my hair and had to wear a helmet. My parents and I researched ways on how to do this and we could not find any relevant information or other people in a similar situation. There was nothing on the internet and I couldn’t find any other athletes with a similar predicament. I figured out a way to do it and I continued to play ice hockey and even starting playing lacrosse, another sport requiring a helmet. I also continue to play competitive basketball and water polo and have even partaken in wrestling.
As part of my ice hockey journey, I also volunteered with the Cheetah organization which is an organization allowing kids with developmental delays and disabilities the chance to play ice hockey. Watching them, I realized that the joy of sports is really for all of us and led me to start this organization to showcase all of us who have overcome obstacles in order to play sports. My hope is that our stories inspire and give support to others facing similar hurdles so that those athletes can participate in sports as sports should be for all of us. My aim is to showcase athletes who have overcome gender, racial, religious, medical, physical, and orientation issues and have continued to play the sports they love. Here’s to the athlete in all of us...
