Dyersburg students build dodgeball launcher for wheelchair user

Five Dyersburg High School students brought a custom dodgeball launcher to the University of Tennessee at Martin on April 10, trying to turn a wheelchair user’s wish into a working way to play. The project, built through Engineering Design IV with teacher Seth Coleman, centered on Kellan Julal, a middle school student who wanted to throw a dodgeball instead of watch from the sideline.

Ashley Owens, an assistant professor of engineering at UT Martin, helped the group troubleshoot and improve the device. The launcher works like a baseball pitching machine, with two wheels spinning in opposite directions to shoot the ball forward once it is placed between them. That design matters on the court: it gives Kellan a way to release a dodgeball with speed and consistency, replacing the throw itself with a mechanism that can still deliver a live ball into play.

UT Martin first highlighted the project on April 22, and a later university newsletter said the students brought the latest version of the launcher back for Kellan to test and enjoy. That detail suggests the effort did not stop at a classroom prototype. It moved toward a usable piece of sports equipment, one that could let a wheelchair user join the same fast-moving exchanges as classmates in a dodgeball game at Dyersburg Middle School.

The larger significance reaches beyond one student and one gym. The National Center for Education Statistics said 7.5 million students ages 3 to 21 received special education and related services under IDEA in 2022-23, about 15% of all public school students. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says physical activity can support daily living activities and independence for people with disabilities, and its inclusive physical education guidance says all children should be able to fully participate in school activities.

This was not the first time students and engineers have tackled the problem of wheelchair access in dodgeball. A similar student-built project surfaced at Hutto High School in Texas in 2017, and University of Victoria CanAssist developed a switch-accessible dodgeball launcher for a child who uses a wheelchair in British Columbia, Canada. The Dyersburg project fits that same pattern: an ordinary school game becomes more inclusive when students treat access as a design challenge, not an afterthought.