The games are governed by the Michigan Disability Sports Alliance, or MDSA, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing recreational and competitive athletic opportunities to athletes with physical disabilities.

Chambers has participated in the games as an athlete for seven years and is vice president of the MDSA board.

“I was a disabled water-skier in Grand Rapids, and through that organization I got into contact with the Grand Rapids Eagles and they go every year,” he said.

The events he is most active in are boxing ball and high toss, Chambers said.

In 2006, he ran for vice president of the MDSA board and is now finishing the second year of his two-year term.

Now, he said he likes to consider himself the voice of the organization.

Stella Husch, director of the MDSA board, said participation in the games has decreased in recent years.

“Eight teams and a handful, maybe five to six individual athletes, will be participating,” Husch said.

A decrease in the numbers of athletes and volunteers has led to difficult financial times, she said, and now the event looks toward sponsorship as their main source of funding.

Housing, food, participation fees and MDSA membership fees can total as much as $300 per athlete to participate, Husch said.

Wright & Filippis, Sam’s Club and Hope Network are just a few of the major sponsors, Husch said.

Marissa Siebel, an athletic training graduate assistant at MSU, will volunteer with the Michigan Victory Games for the first time this year.

“The athletic trainers and student athletic trainers that work with the MSU varsity teams will be working with these athletes,” Siebel said. “We’re estimating 100 athletes will be competing from all over the state.”

Siebel said her goal is to promote equality and to provide the same services to the Michigan Victory Games athletes that are provided to MSU’s athletes.

“It’s an opportunity for athletes with physical disabilities to participate on a fair and equal playing field,” she said.