How our Shooting Stars Adventure Began
The Shooting Stars Special Needs Group was established in 2025 by the Clark family: Rick, Emmie, Jacob and Jonathan.
After running Shooting Stars Special Needs Basketball for San Marcos Youth Basketball (SMYBB) for 20 years, the family created Shooting Stars Special Needs Group to include an expanded variety of enriching avenues/activities to fulfill unmet needs while continuing to offer our signature basketball program that families have come to love. The basketball program was started by Rick and Emmie in 2006 as a vehicle for their then 7 year old son Jacob to enjoy the game of basketball. They tried typical basketball, but the speed of the game and rules were too much for their highly functioning autistic son to handle. Having coached special needs soccer and baseball, they set out to design a program that would make a difference for their son and other kids like him… and Shooting Stars Basketball was born. Shooting Stars Special Needs Basketball was created as an inclusive program designed for children ages 5-25 with a variety of disabilities (including Autism, Down Syndrome and other physical and mental disabilities) to learn and enjoy the game of basketball in a fun, non-competitive environment.
Mission
The purpose of Shooting Stars Special Needs Group is to serve persons with disabilities and the community at large by coordinating activities and providing resources to promote inclusion and create opportunities for special needs individuals and families.
History — How did it start?
In October/November of 2006 Rick Clark was coaching his sons Jacob (2nd grade) and Jonathan’s (1st grade) San Marcos Youth Basketball (SMYBB) Pee-Wee basketball team. Jacob had been diagnosed as Highly Functioning Autistic at age 3½ and loved to play basketball. Rick thought this would be the perfect opportunity to introduce him to the sport and, as a coach, be able, to some degree, to help Jacob adjust to a recreationally competitive game. After about 3 weeks of practice, it became apparent that this brand of basketball was going to be overwhelming for Jacob. Although he could shoot the basketball really well, the speed and competitiveness of the game were just too much. Rick, along with his wife Emmie, sat down one night to decide what to do. Since Rick had coached Special Needs Soccer (AYSO VIP) and helped with Special Needs Baseball, they decided to contact SMYBB to see about starting a special needs group in the league.
Their request was very well received. While on vacation in Hawaii, Rick remembers getting the call from Pat Moore (SMYBB President at the time) saying we had the support of the league. Excited to get started, Rick and Emmie spent the rest of the vacation planning for what had to be done to get started. Once home, they hit the road running with support from the management and staff at the City of San Marcos/Corky Smith Gym, the entire SMYBB board, and help from board members Maria Hoye and Kevin Kennedy, they were on their way. Since the SMYBB season had already started, Rick and Emmie put together the inaugural season very quickly and started in January. With 8 special needs kids, mostly from the VIP soccer team, 10 high school volunteers and 4 coaches, they had a wonderful first 8 game season!
Having run the Shooting Stars Basketball program for 20 years (more years to come), the Clarks saw other opportunities/activities they thought would benefit the underserved disabled individuals in a fun, non-competitive, and encouraging/positive/beneficial way. Hence, the creation of the Shooting Stars Special Needs Group. The Shooting Stars Special Needs Group will continue to include the basketball program along with other new exciting activities.