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EMBRACINGOBSTACLESBUILDS CONFIDENCE

Joseph galasso ’00 watched intently as children lined up for the kick-off of the second annual Special Spartans race in Stamford, Connecticut. “There is something about the starter saying ‘Go!” says Galasso, a clinical psychologist. “Once the race starts, you’d never guess this was a separate heat from other Spartan races. Their determination is the same.” Galasso is a founding partner of the COR Group, a New Jersey-based network that provides a range of psychological, behavioral and educational services to individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities. Through his nonprofit Omnes Foundation, he developed Special Spartans to deliver authentic, confidence-building experiences to those individuals. Kids race in tandem with family, friends or volunteers on courses that include climbing walls, mud pits, a log carry and spear-throw. Special Spartans is an offshoot event of the Spartan Race, the premiere obstacle course event in the world. “It has been truly exciting to see, but at the same time, a sad commentary on how these kinds of events, by and large, don’t exist for this population,” said Galasso, who majored in psychology at Quinnipiac and went on to earn a master’s in industrial/organizational psychology and a doctorate in clinical psychology. Galasso is working hard to change this lack of inclu-siveness. Now in its third full year, Special Spartans has grown from a single race in New Jersey to 17 nationwide, held in such venues as AT&T Stadium in Texas and Bos-ton’s Fenway Park. “We are trying to really make this a national event,” Galasso says. “We would like to see this population represented at every Spartan race.” Galasso attended every Special Spartans event last year. He has been surprised by the level of community involve-ment, from elite athletes to common people willing to assist with everything from transportation and registration to running the course with participants. “That was not entirely by design,” Galasso explains. “Much of our volunteer support has happened totally organically.” Another “happy accident,” as Galasso puts it, was the superhero theme that has come to define the Special Spartans events. From Captain America and Spider-Man to The Flash, volunteers began attending all of the races in 2016 dressed as their favorite comic book characters.

“I don’t think it’s possible to exhaust all of the meta-phors there,” Galasso says. Like the heroes from page and screen, racers also must call upon hidden reserves of strength to accomplish a great physical feat or triumph over adversity. For many Special Spartans, the most difficult forms of adversity are not physical. “In many ways, there are more obstacles before the course than there are on it,” Galasso says. These include sensory overload and the fears associated with being in a crowded, unfamiliar place. Despite these difficulties, Galasso is interested in what he calls “authentic successes.” For him, Special Spartans is about more than just showing up and running a race; it’s about completing a race. So far, every race has enjoyed a 100 percent completion rate. “They are so thrilled with themselves once they cross the finish line,” he says. “It is a very normalizing experi-ence for them.” He explained that for these children, it’s more than a finish line; they cross into a greater com-munity, overcome the same obstacles as their peers, and learn that they are just like everyone else. “Therein is the whole point of what we do profession-ally,” Galasso says. “As far as I’m concerned, if the people I work with can’t gain functional skills, integrate into other environments, or into a broader social context, then I’ve failed at my job.” Besides his COR Group work, Galasso has served as the official team psychologist for the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets since 2014. A busy schedule isn’t enough to slow Galasso down, nor diminish his desire to see Special Spartans grow on a national, and even global scale. “I operate in two gears at all times,” he explains: “Go and improve.”

Psychologist designs race for kids with special needs

B Y A D A M D U R S OP H O T O M I C H E L L E M C L O U G H L I N

Joseph Galasso ’00, right, founder of the Special Spartans Race, watches as a participant in the rope- climbing segment gets some help from Spider-Man.

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