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Four second-grade classes were held in the Milan suburb of Verano Brianza teaching the students to play basketball this spring with a real professional as the teacher, who gave them another lesson on diversity.

Their coach for the month was revealed to be Adolfo Damian Berdun, who is an Argentinian-Italian wheelchair basketball champion. At the age of 13, Berdun got into a traffic accident in his native Buenos Aires which was when he lost his left leg but didn’t stop him from becoming a basketball champion. He has travelled to several schools in the past few years to talk about how he lived with his disability.

But rather than going to talk in the suburban elementary school, Berdun went there intending to become a coach. This is the first time he is taking up the coaching role. He rejected the idea of a video introduction, and instead went straight into the court on his first with a new beginning.

“Every class that came in, looked at me with open mouths like they wanted to ask a question,” Berdun said to the media. “I said, ‘We can ask questions later, now we play basketball.’ ”

Head of Sporting Association Elena Sandre that organised the five-week programme reminisced about the first when Berdun dropped a simple introduction before asking the students: “‘Do you want to run?'” they said ‘yes’ before continuing with a “Run,” according to the head of the sporting association. And then the students started running after enduring an academic year without team sports.

In those five weeks, the youngsters were taught how to dribble and shoot, while passing was off-bounds due to the Covid-19 protocols. They also learned the simple drills, navigating a slalom course on the gym floor. Berdun also didn’t slack off, as he helped the children by placing two rings on both sides of the basket, just so the students couldn’t make a throw to 10-foot (three-metre) height of the standard hoop will have a shot.

Sandre first got to know Berdun when she was a journalist covering wheelchair basketball in Rome, Italy, then Sardinia before meeting him once again in the Monza province of Lombardy, where he played in the UnipolSai Briantea84 Cantù. That was the same team that lifted the Italian championship this year, and that ended with Berdun becoming the MVP for the tournament.

He will continue to play for the Argentina national team, but with the senior team failing to qualify, we won’t be seeing him in the Paralympics in Tokyo this year, but while there won’t be odds for Berdun in the competition you can always take another approach by betting on different sports which will maximise everything.

Sandre insisted that she didn’t accept Berdun because of his disability but instead of the leadership skills he always showed for the teams he’s played for.

She added: “If you see him play, you see he is a coach. He manages the team. He is a leader.”

“I did not imagine that in a wheelchair, with so many children, I could feel so good,” Berdun added.

While Berdun dismissed talks of his disability until the last day, the lesson of diversity still spread around. Sandre also revealed that she had seen parents talked about about “privileged” their children were to have a professional para-athlete teach them on social media.

“But the most beautiful thing is that we succeeded in breaking down the barrier between the coach with one leg in a wheelchair, and the ideal of a coach, period,” Berdun added.

”How do I know this? Because after asking me a couple of questions, they asked if they could continue doing basketball drills. That means they were more interested in playing than in knowing why I only have one leg.”