Pancakes with a purpose

XENIA Monday, the Dayton Veterans Wheelchair Sports Team that includes three Greene Countians will benefit from the proceeds when Xenia’s Perkins’ Restaurant & Bakery hosts a fundraiser from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. The three local team members are Phil Kearney, of Xenia; Dale Spiller, of Jamestown, and Jackie Tyler, of Spring Valley.

Proceeds will support the team in state and national wheelchair competitions: the Ohio Wheelchair Games on May 17-19, and the 27th National Veterans Wheelchair Games in Milwaukee, Wisc., June 19-23. Visit Perkins’ on Monday and receive a plate of three pancakes with each donation. Continue Reading »

Battle for London 2012 gold

When Sergeant Mick Brennan was caught in a suicide bombing in Iraq, the outlook was bleak.

Hurled 25 ft by the force of the explosion, the former keen runner and boxer lost both legs and suffered an injury to his brain. He struggled to control his anger and faced a long Rehabilitation.

Now, however, Sgt Brennan is fighting to represent his country again – at the 2012 London Paralympic Games.

The 27-year-old, is one of 42 amputee soldiers who last month received letters offering them a chance to compete for a place in the Paralympic squad. Continue Reading »

Quadriplegic graduate student, avid sports fan dies at age 27

Michael Brent, a UK graduate student, avid sports fan and former athlete who developed Quadriplegia after a car accident in high school, died at 6 a.m. yesterday from stomach ulcer complications. He was 27.

Originally from Campbellsburg, Ky., Brent began studying at UK in 2000, and the people who knew him all remember the same thing – his positive outlook on life.

Brent, a former Kernel and recent Cats’ Pause reporter, inspired a foundation in his name to raise money for spinal cord research. He received a degree in journalism from UK in 2004 and was going to graduate from UK’s communication graduate program in May. Continue Reading »

Stingley inspired with way he lived after injury Stingley, who died at age 55, was a symbol of hope

The former New England receiver, who died Thursday at age 55, lived life as fully as he could while restricted to his wheelchair after being paralyzed by a hit in a preseason game in 1978.

CHICAGO – For years, Darryl Stingley was football’s most visible reminder of the danger inherent in a most violent sport.

Stingley was a 26-year-old New England Patriots receiver when a tackle by Oakland safety Jack Tatum paralyzed him in an exhibition game against the Raiders on Aug. 12, 1978. Stingley spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair and died Thursday morning at age 55 after he was found unconscious by his wife, Martine, in his Chicago condominium. Continue Reading »

Tide wheelchair squads compete despite disability

TUSCALOOSA — Much like University of Alabama men’s basketball coach Mark Gottfried and women’s coach Stephany Smith, Brent Hardin scours the country looking for only the best basketball players to wear the uniform of the Crimson Tide.

“It’s scary, how detailed recruiting is these days,” Hardin said. Continue Reading »

Skelley has moved on from injury

Allie Skelley never thought such a mundane task that most people take for granted would make him so happy. But he’s grateful for every day he rolls out of bed and his feet touch the floor without assistance.

That wasn’t a given four years ago when the Wolfeboro native suffered a serious neck injury that could have killed him or at the very least cost him the ability to walk.

A junior defenseman and captain for the St. Lawrence University hockey team, Skelley was checked from behind in a game against Lake Superior State in Canton, N.Y., and tumbled head-first into the boards. Continue Reading »

Quadriplegic clash on wheels in full-contact rugby

DURHAM – The ease with which the competitors zipped up and down the court made one almost forget they’re missing something most sports players have – the use of their legs.

Yesterday, the Northeast Passage Wildcats, the new quadriplegic rugby team at the University of New Hampshire, held its first tournament, competing against players from around New England and elsewhere.

The most obvious difference between this and other sports has to do with the use of specially designed wheelchairs – each has six wheels, two large ones on either side, and four smaller ones in front and back. Continue Reading »

The Wii and an injured gamer – a happy follow-up

A little more than 13 months ago, I wrote a front-page story about a young man named Travis Taft, an avid gamer who had suffered a spinal cord injury affecting his arms and legs.

Here’s an excerpt from that story, which focused on Taft’s excitement about the one-hand controller Nintendo had described for its upcoming console, then code-named Revolution: Continue Reading »

New sports program to benefit disabled soldiers

The Department of National Defence is working with the Canadian Paralympic Committee on a program called “Soldier On” to help members of the military who have been permanently injured in action or on the job to use sports to recover.

The program is still in its infancy and funding and other details are still being worked out. But there’s hope that some of the soldiers involved in the program will choose to compete for Canada, perhaps at the 2008 or 2010 Paralympic Games. Continue Reading »

Beware the chair

Travis Oldhouser proves Quad rugby isn’t for the scared, soft or squeamish

PHILADELPHIA – Metal slammed into metal in the middle of the gym.

Bodies jolted.

Spectators winced.

And players smiled devilish, satisfied smiles.

This was practice for the guys with broken necks and cracked spines.

It was a strange scene, wheelchairs racing across the floor, bumper car-style crashes every few minutes. Continue Reading »