Getting Everyone Moving

Tom is a wheelchair basketball coach in Charlottesville, VA and is the Executive Director of the Independence Resource Center  

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.”

David is the first wheelchair basketball coach at Eastern Washington University.  

Kwok Ng currently holds a joint post at the School of Educational Sciences and Psychology, University of Eastern Finland and the Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, University of Limerick, Ireland. He previously worked at the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä. Kwok does research in (special) educational interventions, Physical Activity promotion as well as sport psychology. Current projects include the Digilearn intervention at UEF, the Health Ireland Demonstration Project, the WHO Collaborative Cross-national Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study, the Finnish School-aged Physical Activity (SPA) study and Winning in the Long Run: Towards a Psychosocial Sustainability of Adolescent Dual Careers.'  

When sitting is not resting: Sitting Volleyball -

World ParaVolley Sitting Volleyball 40 years 1980-2020: commemorative booklet

International Federation of Adapted Physical Activity - ifapa.net

Jeff is the Executive Director of the Welger Foundation.   His parents Christa and Saul were pioneers in the world of adaptive sports.

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