HIGH JUMP—Agoura High School freshman Itay Teshuva helps Emma Batham sink a basketball for the very first time. Drew Fine and Amy Hile are on a mission to make the VIP sports league a permanent fixture in the area.

The league provides team sport opportunities for special needs children, but its activities have been irregular.

Fine is the VIP coordinator for this year’s basketball league, which currently has 20 players but has room for more. Hile is the VIP division director for Agoura Youth Basketball Association.

On Sundays for the next four weeks, Fine, Hile, AYBA volunteers and students from Agoura and Calabasas high school basketball teams will help children with special needs play basketball as a team. The games are played at Medea Creek Middle School from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m., Fine said.

Children on the VIP league have varying degrees of challenges. Some are autistic; others have physical handicaps that have precluded them from joining traditional sports teams.

“It’s an extremely important program,” Fine said of VIP.

Fine said that some youth leagues are resistant to offering time and energy to helping children with special needs. He and others want the VIP program to be integrated into all youth sports, including baseball, soccer and football.

Fine says that 10 percent of school-aged children have special needs of one type or another.

“As a sports administrator myself . . . I recognize the need for everybody to play,” he said. “The VIP league is really good for the parents and really good for the kids.

“You don’t need to have a special needs kid, just need to do something special,” Fine continued. He said he doesn’t want the push for a VIP league to be solely on the shoulders of parents with special needs children.

“I’m trying to get across that this is such a rewarding experience and we have the opportunity to do something special for these kids.”

Fine shared a story about one of last year’s players. “The dad looked like he just stepped off of his Harley (motorcycle),” Fine said. “His kid made a basket and he’s crying. It was kind of cool.”

Hile said AYBA has been hosting a VIP league for three years.

“Many of the children in the area have difficulties, either physical or emotional limitations, that may make it uncomfortable or unproductive for them to be part of a more organized team with a strict schedule,” Hile said.

The VIP league is designed to accommodate all children to the best of their ability, Hile said. The goal is to make all children feel that they are contributing to the game.

“Fun is the No. 1 goal, and hopefully they will learn rules of the game and teamwork.”

For more information on joining the VIP league, visit www.agourayouthbasketball.org.