Getting Everyone Moving

Mike's interview with Gene talking about Sports for everyBODY and our adapted sports fair on April 22, 2023

Salton Sea Prayer Vigil October 10, 2022

Kyra is a multiple sport athlete and has dreams of opening a coffee shop.  Her mom Kendra, her dad who passed away five years ago, and her other family members have been huge supports in helping Kyra to thrive.

Jeremy "Opie" Lade (born January 6, 1981)[1] is an American Paralympic wheelchair basketball player and head coach from Oconto, Wisconsin. He was injured in a car accident at age 8, and attended his first wheelchair sports camp at the age of 13 at UW-Whitewater. He is a two-time Paralympian American Games gold medalist in both 2007 and 2011. In 2002, he won a gold medal at IWBF World Championship and in 2006 won a silver one from the same place. Six years later, he was awarded a bronze medal for his participation at the 2012 Summer Paralympics and is currently employed as a head coach at the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater.[2] From 2005 to 2008 he coached Milwaukee Wizards and led them to a Junior National Championship. In his spare time he likes to watch Green Bay Packers, Milwaukee Bucks, and Milwaukee Brewers with Michael Jordan being his favorite athlete.  https://rollt-magazin.de/interview-with-jeremy-opie-lade-make-your-decisions-based-on-what-is-best-for-the-team/ https://www.uww.edu/aaec/welcome/advisors/opie-lade

Jason Allen has been involved with tennis throughout his entire life, starting with his first job as an assistant tennis pro at a country club in the early1990s at the age of 15.

In October 2016, he was hired as manager for wheelchair tennis, a position based at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla. In his current role, he oversees wheelchair tennis across the country, managing tournaments, grass-roots initiatives, camps and coaching-development workshops, among other responsibilities.

Allen is also involved with the professional side of wheelchair tennis, as highlighted by his role as team leader with Team USA. In that administrative role, he oversees the logistics of tournaments for American players and coaches and also coordinates with the ITF, USOC and IPC. He will once again take on that responsibility at the World Team Cup.

Allen’s work also extends to on-court coaching. He helped start a weekly wheelchair tennis program at the National Campus, which has grown from one to 16 participants, and also runs several week-long all-comers camps throughout the year. Allen also helped launch the Net Generation wheelchair tennis initiative after extensive work adapting the able-bodied Net Gen curriculum for wheelchair athletes.

Allen’s unique career path also includes seven years in education, as a Spanish teacher and a principal. He left that field in 2016 to take on his  full-time role with the USTA.

Rich O’Brien is an adaptive golf instructor who works with advanced and disabled golfers, using golf as therapy.  Rich has over 30 years of experience, but he also has his own harrowing narrative about traumatic brain injury and how golf, amongst other factors, helped him in his healing process.   

http://www.bcepilepsy.com/blog/rich-tbi-recovery 

https://sportsprosconnect.com/richobrien/ 

https://www.facebook.com/richobriengolf/

Dave and Jaime are part of Blind Stokers Club of San Diego

Lisa is the President of the NWBA Junior Division.  She stared a non-profit adaptive sport organization in Mississippi and her son Jonathan is a wheelchair basketball athlete.

Dave is on the Executive Committee of the Juniors Division of the NWBA.  His daughter Ruby had a rare form of cancer resulting in paralysis.  She is a mover and shaker and plays for the University of Illinois.

Anthony Lara was introduced to wheelchair sports at the age of 9 years old and hasn’t looked back since. He is a 25 year+ veteran of the ITF Professional Wheelchair Tennis Tour and was a member of the U.S. Paralympic Team that competed at the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia. He is active with the West Coast Wheelchair Tennis Association and is an excellent Tennis Instructor, receiving the Angel City Sports Foundation’s Coach of the Year Award in 2017. In addition, he is the founder of the One More Push Foundation.

A paraplegic from birth, Hoskins has been involved with wheelchair basketball for much of her life. She was a member of the St. Louis Rolling Rams through high school before attending the University of Illinois, where she was a part of the Fighting Illini squad that won four consecutive national championships.  After qualifying for the U.S. Paralympics Women's Wheelchair Basketball Team in 2004, Hoskins was a member of the team that won the gold medal at the Paralympic Games in Athens. In 2008, Hoskins was a starter in the gold medal game against Germany and helped Team USA complete its repeat.  Hoskins earned her bachelor's degree from Illinois in psychology and and her master's degree at Murray State University.  Emily is married, is a therapist and coaches youth wheelchair basketball teams in Nashville, TN

Kaitlin is a USPTA tennis professional. She is the only fully certified USPTA tennis professional in the world who has had a hemispherectomy. Kaitlin now teaches wheelchair tennis with Head Women's Tennis Coach Dee Henry at Biola University and also is a tennis instructor for Special Olympics.

Tennis discovered Harlon Matthews on Cinco de Mayo 2001. A wheelchair basketball player at the time, Matthews had no interest in tennis. “They told me I’d have to hold the racquet but still keep my chair moving. They told me I’d get blisters,” says Matthews. “I told them, ‘No thank you.’”

But when Tennis Day arrived in Athens Ga., Matthews gave tennis a try. And tennis changed his life. “I never felt that in 34 years of my life,” he said. Matthews began as a novice player but kept at it. Now, he is the Therapeutic Recreation Coordinator and tennis coach in Henry County, Ga.

Matthews didn’t stop there; he became a member of the PTR and passed the instructor test. “He’s amazing,” says Julie Jilly, the PTR’s v.p. of operations. “He moved up from beginner player to clinician. He’s very passionate about what tennis can do for people. Now, he teaches the teachers.”

In addition, Matthews is a tournament director for the Geranium Festival Wheelchair Tennis Tournament, which recently was named USTA Southern Section’s 2010 Tournament of the Year.

“The one thing that makes Harlon such a successful person is his passion, love for tennis and his unbelievable competitive nature despite his disability,” says Rick Davison, director of competition for USTA Georgia. “He’s just one of those individuals who inspires others to just do it and stop making excuses.”

Cruz is a wheelchair tennis/bball player and a leader in the world of adaptive sports in New Mexico.

Adrina, at 12, is a future Paralympic Wheelchair Bball player, along with her older sister Mia they provide online fitness instruction.  https://vimeo.com/454167491

Ashley is the Executive Director of the Permobil Foundation, providing needed equipment for people with disability

Jake Herbert is a 29 year old adaptive athlete. He started his adaptive sport career in wheelchair basketball at the age of 19 before moving his focus to powerlifting at the age of 23. He made his first USA National Para-Powerlifting team in 2016 and competed in his first Para-Powerlifting World Championship in 2017 in Mexico City. He also the founder of AdaptivePower Strength & Fitness LLC in Indiana. This is a new business that focuses on giving people that are disable and able-body a way to achieve their fitness goals in a whole new light.

Jim Glatch took over as Edinboro University’s coach for student-athletes with disabilities in 1995. Most noteworthy is his work as the head coach of the wheelchair basketball team. He ranks as one of the leaders both nationally and internationally in coaching wheelchair basketball.

While winning on the basketball court is important, Glatch takes great pride that 70 percent of his student-athletes have graduated. On the court, he led the Fighting Scots to their finest season in 2006-07, reaching the National Intercollegiate Wheelchair Basketball Tournament championship game. Edinboro would finish second in the country while playing in front of a large crowd at McComb Fieldhouse, ending the year with a 24-9 record.

Glatch served as the director of Team USA’s Senior National Program from 2009-2012. His teams have earned success in international competition. He guided Team USA 23 team to the 2009 IWBF U23 World Championship, as the United States finished with a perfect 8-0 record while competing in Paris, France. That team included former Edinboro standouts Tommie Gray and Trevon Jenifer. The United States capped its perfect run to the title with a 77-54 win over Spain.

Glatch and his Team USA earned the bronze medal at the 2012 Paralympics in London, England. It was the first medal for the men’s team since 2000.

In addition to his duties with Team USA, Glatch gained previous international experience as an assistant coach for the 2001 Team USA 23 and Under World Cup Team, plus as a member of the selection committee of Team USA Women’s National Team in 2004 and a head coach at the U.S. Basketball Festival in 2003-04. 

He has worked numerous camps and runs the Edinboro University Fighting Scots Wheelchair Basketball Camp. Previously, he served as a clinician at the Philadelphia Junior Wheelchair Basketball Camp and worked the Wounded Warrior Clinic, which works with Veterans Hospitals and organizations to teach wheelchair basketball to military veterans.

Prior to taking over as Edinboro’s head coach, Glatch was the Director of Sports Management, PA for Special Olympics from 1989-95.  He coordinated 22 sports statewide along with assisting in the development of coaches.

Glatch received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Psychology and Mathematics from the University of Pittsburgh, and also attended the American Sports Education Program (ASEP) at the University of Illinois.

He resides in Meadville with his wife Sandy of 28 years. They have one son, Alex (26), along with two daughters, Carley (24) a member of Edinboro University’s Class of 2020 and Stephanie (21), a junior at Edinboro.

Brian lost his leg at the age of 10 due to a train accident. After he finished rehabilitation, he wanted to get back to playing his favorite sports: basketball and football. He played middle school football on his prosthetic until it became too strenuous. His mother discovered the Lakeshore Foundation, a U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Site in Birmingham, Alabama, where he fell in love with the wheelchair basketball after a attending sport camps for children with disabilities at the age of 12....Married to Diane Bell and they have five children.  Brian enjoys drawing, playing video games, reading, cooking, and hanging out with friends and family.

Paralympic Experience

World Championship Experience

You will absolutely love this interview with Wheelchair Rugby Paralympian Chad Cohn.  Chad enjoys gardening, cars, shoes, camping and doing anything outside. Paralympic Experience Two-time Paralympian (2012, 2016); Two-time medalist (1 silver, 1 bronze) Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, silver London 2012 Paralympic Games, bronze World Championship Experience Most recent: 2018 – bronze Years of participation: 2010, 2014, 2018 Medals: 3 (1 gold, 2 bronze) Gold – 2010 Bronze - 2014, 2018

Baron was born with spina bifida, a birth defect that has resulted in weakness in her legs. Until the third grade, Shelby walked around school with crutches and sat out of most PE activities. When she was nine years old, Lolly Romano, an adaptive PE specialist with the Department of Education, introduced her to a wheelchair. This allowed her to participate in most sports along with her classmates. She began playing wheelchair basketball with Coach Jeff Sampaga every Thursday as a way to get exercise, and was referred to a Tuesday night wheelchair tennis class. Tennis was frustrating at first, but she felt so good each time she hit a ball back over the net. After a couple of years, Shelby joined a US Tennis Association (USTA) junior team with able-bodied players. Most recently, Shelby represented the U.S. Juniors a second time in the 2012 BNP Paribas World Team Cup, held this year in Seoul, South Korea. An exciting event, the U.S. Juniors took second place, their best finish since 2003, after beating the top seed, Great Britain

Kalamazoo College-Wen Chao Chen Associate Professor of East Asian Social Sciences. His research focuses on modern Japanese history, with particular emphases on sports, disability, militarization, and urban development. At K, I teach courses on the entire scope of premodern, modern, and contemporary East Asian history with particular focus on China, Japan, and Korea. I also teach First-Year and Sophomore Seminars in the College’s Shared Passages Program, as well as Senior Seminars for the History Department and the East Asian Studies Program.  

Dennis most recent book is More Than Medals: A History of the Paralympics and Disability Sports in Postwar Japan.  

Dennis has a son with spina bifida who plays tennis, sled hockey and other sports

Kentaro has been blind since birth but doesn't let anything stop him.  He has a full career, working at JICA in Tokyo, plays blind soccer and surfs, started an NGO in Sudan to develop blind soccer.

K. David McCann is the Executive Director of USA Boccia. Prior to taking this position in April 2020, he was the Director of the Office of Recreation and Park Resources, which provided consulting services, and coaching and parent resources to sport organizations in Illinois and throughout the country. He is one of the nation’s leading experts on Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) and sports programming, having been instrumental in the creation of the American Development Model which is used by the US Olympic Committee and numerous National Governing Bodies. Previously he has served as Director of Sport Development and Coaching for USA Rugby, Manager of Coaching Education for the US Olympic Committee, and Director of Educational Services for the US Ski and Snowboard Association.

While at the US Ski and Snowboard Association he created dozens of award-winning educational CD/DVDs and courses for coaches, parents, and athletes, which generated over a million dollars in revenue for the organization. He has created several websites and educational platforms for the delivery of courses, resources to national and local sport organizations. In 2007 he was elected President of the National Council for Accreditation of Coaching Education (NCACE). He has organized and hosted several National Coaching Conferences, which bring together coaches, coach educators, and program administrators to discuss and develop solutions to improve our sports development, education, and performance systems. Throughout his career, he has trained over 3,000 sport coaches and instructors in clinics and workshops.

He is a former professional project manager and is proficient in the use of project management, database, and budgeting software. He has performed and project managed research consulting reports for the International Rugby Board, and USA Rugby. He has worked with numerous national sport organizations such as the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) on the development of TrueSport, the US Olympic Committee on the development of the strategy for the USOC Safe Sports Environment (SafeSport), and National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) on the creation of the National Standards for Sport Coaches. In his role at the USOC, he advised and oversaw the creation of coaching education and development programs for several national governing bodies. He is a presently a member of the North American Society for Sport Management, and the US Center for Coaching Excellence.

Steve bring 30 years of sports experience to the USPSA as an elite wheelchair athlete, coach and organizer. He competed worldwide in wheelchair tennis for over 20 years and ended the 1988 season as US Open Champion and the #1 ranked player in the world. Steve coached and helped develop quad rugby programs in Southern California as well as multiple able-body youth sports programs. Steve started playing power soccer in 2011 and is excited about applying his past experiences to help develop the sport. Steve is currently the director of marketing and client development for Evo Sports Training and resides in Lakewood California with his wife and two children.

Doug is a wheelchair basketball coach with the Rollin Timberwolves.  He started in the field of wheelchair basketball through his son Joe, who played for Missouri.

Jones, is the Divisional President of the NWBA’s Intercollegiate Division since 2012, enters the Hall of Fame as an individual who served in a variety of roles during his career. His career spanned 20 years, starting in 1982 with the North Florida Renegades. In 1995, Jones won the first of five National Titles as a player. From 2001-2008 he changed gears to coach the Gator

Wheels and the Dallas Wheelchair Mavericks. As a coach, he won four National Titles for the Mavericks (2003, 2005, 2006, 2007).

From an administrative perspective, Jones has been involved in a variety of roles that started as serving as the President of the Florida Conference from 1992-1994. He was a member of the NWBA Tournament Selection Committee for 1996-1997. He was also a member of the D-I Executive Committee from 2003-2008.

Tommie Storms drives the business operations of the organization. If not for her enterprising nature, American Association of Adaptive Sports (AAASP) prominence in Georgia and national recognition might have come at a much slower pace. She is also a respected speaker in the field of youth disability sports, traveling extensively throughout the United States to raise awareness.  Having recruited Storms as a volunteer in Georgia’s first adapted sports programs, Bev Vaughn grew to know of Storms’ executive aptitude. In 1994, Vaughn introduced the idea to Storms of forming AAASP as the organizational vehicle by which the mission of providing opportunity through sports for America’s physically disabled youth would evolve.  Storms’ role as co–founder would be to shore up the business component of Vaughn’s Adapted Sports model by directing operations, developing community partnerships and acquiring funding for the statewide programs. Balancing her position as an academic director at an Atlanta college, with her conviction to push forth the AAASP vision, Storms’ penned the business plan for AAASP’s staged growth. This plan would entail progressing from one school system throughout Georgia, and then become the national body to oversee a network of statewide youth adapted sports programs. This is the foundation for what is now known as Project ASPIRE.

Ahkeel is a Paralympian and the Director  of the San Diego State Collegiate Adaptive Sport Program.  He was born with a mild form of cerebral palsy which affects the left side of his body. ...He entered Paralympic sport in 2011 after his high school coach connected with a U.S. Paralympics coach. ...He was a bass player during his time in high school where he was also named former defensive player of the year.

In 2001, Hollermann and her family were involved in a car accident that took the lives of two of her brothers and caused her to be partially paralyzed from the waist down. As part of her rehabilitation, she was introduced to swimming at the Courage Center in Minneapolis. From there, she tried sled hockey, track and field, archery, cross-country skiing and wheelchair basketball. She discovered her talent and passion for wheelchair basketball. In 2011, she became one of the youngest players on the U.S. women’s wheelchair basketball team at age 15. Since then, she has excelled in her career, playing collegiate basketball at the University of Texas at Arlington and leading Team USA to Paralympic gold in 2016....Has three brothers: Shane, Ethan, and Seth Hollermann...Hobbies include fishing, hunting, basketball, sled hockey, photography, listening to music.

Aslakson discovered basketball at the age of 13 at the Courage Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota after seeing the basketball team practice while she was at an archery lesson. The Minnesota native was involved in a car crash at the age of five that caused her to be paralyzed from the waist down. She played basketball at Jordan High School before attending the University of Texas at Arlington where she played for the Lady Movin’ Mavs. She ultimately transferred to New York University to study dramatic writing....Hobbies include writing, film and traveling.

Christine is a young woman who has not let anything in life stop her.  She has participated in a variety of sports with the support of her parents.  You will thoroughly enjoy this interview with a young woman who doesn't let anything stop her.  

Ron is the Head Coach of the University of Missouri Men's Wheelchair Basketball team as well as the Head Coach of the USA Men's Team heading to Tokyo in August.

My friends at ENGAGE are doing wonderful work in Nepal developing more volunteers while offering people with disabilities an avenue to participate in society.

Born with congenital amputation, Jenifer was a successful track athlete in his early years and a top wrestler in high school. He attended Huntingtown High School and joined the wrestling team, competing against able-bodied athletes and finishing third in his weight class at the Maryland state tournament his senior year. He started playing wheelchair basketball in 1992 with team Air Capital in Washington D.C. He was a three-year captain and two-time All-American for the Edinboro men’s wheelchair basketball team and played professional basketball for two years overseas in France.  Trey is a member of the USA Men's Wheelchair Basketball Team.

For more than a decade, Taylor Lipsett has lived all things sled hockey. Lipsett has been on the U.S. National Sled Hockey Team since 2003. He has two Paralympic medals under his belt, having earned gold at the Vancouver Games in 2010 and bronze in Torino in 2006. In addition to competing for Team USA, Lipsett has played with several club teams including the Dallas Ice Hawks (2002-06 and 2008-10), the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) Blackhawks (2006-08), Minnesota Northern (2010-11) and the Dallas Stars (2011-13). In 2012, he helped the Stars to the USA Hockey Sled Classic Division A Championship, presented by the NHL.

Lipsett has excelled in the physically grueling sport of sled hockey despite living with osteogenesis imperfecta, a disorder also referred to as “brittle bone disease”. He was named a National Collegiate Scholar at Southern Methodist University, where he graduated with a degree in finance in 2009. He currently lives in Plano, Texas, with his wife Kathleen and works in wealth management at Bank of America.

Ali has overcome two accidents during his life and uses a wheelchair for mobility.  Ali is a board member of Palms to Pines Parasports.  He is a college student and has an incredible future ahead of him.

Paul Bowes is a professional wheelchair basketball coach in Canada, Germany and other parts of the world.  You will thoroughly enjoy this interview from a person with a good heart.

Eddie is a board member of Palms to Pines Parasports, a wheelchair bball athlete, a homeowner, married, two children, working full-time for IEHP leads a pretty "normal" life.  You'll want to get to know Eddie.

Doug Garner is the Coach of the University of Texas Movin Mavs, one of the few collegiate adaptive athletic programs in the US.  Doug has done a lot in promoting adaptive sports.  

Mike is a coach of the Charlotte Rollin' Hornets, https://www.facebook.com/rollinhornets/ and Treasurer of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association (NWBA).  Mike speaks from his heart in talking about how he got started in adaptive sports and where it has taken his family.

Josh is a professor at James Madison University.  He was born with cerebral palsy but hasn't let that stop him from leading a full life.  Josh participates in a variety of adaptive sports.

Andrea Woodson-Smith was an elite college basketball athlete hoping to play in both the WNBA and the Olympics.  But arthritis in both of her hips put her on a different path where she ended up being part of the 2004 and 2012 US Paralympic teams in wheelchair basketball.  Andrea is a professor at North Carolina Central University in Durham and is starting a graduate program in adaptive sports!

Jess Markt is Director of the International Committee of the Red Cross Adaptive sports program. Jess became injured when he was 19 but has not let this stop him from literally conquering the world, bringing wheelchair basketball everywhere.

Amy Burnett is an incredible athlete, having played wheelchair bball, tennis, cycling and now badminton.  Amy is an extremely positive person and will make you feel good as she talks about her life.  

Yuta Saito is Japanese, having spent a year in the US at the University of Arizona, University of Texas-Arlington and Lakeshore Foundation in Alabama.  He is involved with Hokkaido Adaptive Sports which is one of the few NGO's working in this field in Japan.  

Pete is a person who has never let his physical disability stop him.  From traveling around the world coaching, playing wheelchair basketball, founding a non-profit, Wheelchair Athletes Worldwide and now serving as Director of Adaptive Sports for the University of Arizona, Pete is a true role model.

Jenn is a gold medal Paralympian, pharmacist, coach, Chairperson for the National Wheelchair Bball Association Women's Division and all around amazing person. 

Wes Hall is a real Tar Heel, a person who has not let the fact that he has a prothesis stop him from doing anything.  Wes is an amazing kayaker and just all around iron man.

Will Rogers is on the board of Palms to Pines Parasports.  He is almost completely blind, has a prosthetic and is a true athlete participating in cycling, archery, meditation and boccia, but also many other sports.