Limitless possibilities
Wheelchair athletics is about possibilities, not limitations, and nowhere is that more evident than in Spokane, where a small but noteworthy number of young athletes and their coaches are becoming known, in some cases, nationally and internationally. Any list of recent young contributors in wheelchair sports starts with Ferris Class of 2000 graduate Tyler Byers, who after numerous state championships during his high school years moved to the University of Arizona. Since then he has competed on a grander scale, most recently at the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens, where he was a member of the U.S. team.
Byers’ most prominent successors in the Spokane area are Rogers High School sophomore Cody Mace, Riverside freshman Bobby Hunt and North Central’s Jordan Clyburn.
Coaches connected with those kids are Rogers’ Steve Kiesel, Riverside’s Jeff Kemp, NC’s Dempsey Ortega and, probably most significantly, Teresa Skinner of Team St. Luke’s.
Skinner’s is the name that comes up most frequently with whomever one talks about disabled athletics. She’s an occupational therapist for the Riverside School District but in her role as adaptive sports coordinator for Team St. Luke’s has played a critical part in the development of local programs. The programs have, in turn, enabled Spokane’s young wheelchair athletes to compete at the state, national and international levels.
Her current prize pupil is Mace, who won all four boys events at last spring’s WIAA state track meet – the 100, 400, 1500 and shot put. He also holds the national javelin record for his age group, set last summer in Mesa, Ariz.
“Cody’s got great potential,” Skinner said. “I will say that if he really wants to make it to the Paralympics in Beijing in 2008, he can do that. He’s made huge growth in the last year both personally and athletically.
“He’s such a great kid, and as the oldest kid on Team St. Luke’s right now, he’s in the position of being a role model. Everyone looks up to him, and he’s begun to see that and to understand it. He’s doing an awesome job, and it’s been great to watch him grow.”
If Mace makes it to China, he’ll be following the trail that Byers blazed before him. Byers got his first racing chair at age 9, did his first Bloomsday at 10, his first junior national meet at 12, and had great success in high school at the state and eventually at the collegiate and national level.
His involvement predated Skinner’s move to Spokane from Atlanta in 1995, and he became part of the Seattle program because there wasn’t an organized team here.
A fifth-year engineering mathematics student at Arizona, Skinner is now working as coach of the wheelchair track and road racing team and has his eye on a number of local athletes, including Mace, Clyburn, Hunt and Chris Taylor, another Ferris graduate currently attending Spokane Falls Community College.
Mace, who will travel to Australia as part of the U.S. junior national team, is in his third year of wheelchair competition. Like Byers, he has spina bifida, but he was an able-bodied athlete – “playing normal sports,” he said – until eighth grade, when physicians told him that he would need to spend most of his time in his wheelchair.
“Of course I was disappointed for a while,” he said. “I wanted to keep playing sports, though, so I didn’t wait around very long before I started. I was pretty successful in basketball right away, but racing took longer.
“Now, racing is my favorite sport. I train five or six days a week, about two hours a day. During cross country and track seasons, I train mostly with the school team, except for once a week with Team St. Luke’s.
“When I went to state last year in cross country (finishing second), I checked my times against Tyler’s and saw that I beat his sophomore time. Now my goal is to beat his best time there.”
Like Skinner, Kiesel marvels at Mace’s work ethic.
“I’ve been involved with him since he’s been at Rogers. He’s a great kid, a hard worker, and doesn’t act like he’s in a wheelchair. He’s just like anybody else around here.”
At Riverside, former Ram runner Jeff Kemp – varsity coach Bill Kemp’s son – works with Bobby Hunt and says that he’s learning as much from Bobby as he’s teaching him.
“This is the first year we’ve ever done this at Riverside,” he said. “I’ve coached before, but not wheelchair, and it’s different from what I expected. I started out running with Bobby, but now I’m on a bicycle to keep up with him – downhill, he’s going up to 36 miles per hour – and since he started, he’s cut his times in half.
“Bobby’s workouts are about 10 miles long, with the same intensity level as our other runners. It’s been a great experience, and Teresa’s been terrific in helping to educate me about wheelchair athletics.”
Skinner downplays her role and praises the support that Team St. Luke’s receives from the Spokane community, from Children’s Miracle Network and St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Center.
“We spent about $35,000 last year to provide opportunities for kids with disabilities, and it wouldn’t have happened without the support we get from those three.
“This whole thing isn’t as much about sports as it is about changing mindsets. Sports is just the vehicle for opening doors, for having disabled kids see that there isn’t anything that can stop them. When they’re around athletes who probably once thought that they couldn’t do much in life, they look at them and say, ‘If they can do that, I can do that.’ “