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Welcome Sports Fans!

by Christina Mills

Greetings Club KASA members! My name is Christina Mills and I will be writing a sports column. The reason why I was chosen to write this column is because I have had my share of experiences with a variety of different wheelchair sports. To give you a brief history about myself, let me start by telling you that my disability is Osteogenisis Imperfecta--a bone disease. I am 22 years old and I live in San Diego, California.

As a child I can remember my Mom always having a hard time explaining why I couldn't play on the playground with my peers, eventually we just stopped going there," says Megan Brooks, a college student born with cerebral palsy.

When I was in seventh grade, I decided I wanted to join a swim team that my "able-bodied" friends were already a part of. I went to practice with them one day and the coach sort of looked at me strangely as I began to get into the water. At first, Julie, my coach, tried to stop me.

But she let me try it.

It was that day in seventh grade that changed my life. I swam with the "able-bodied"team known as the Swim Pals for 3 years and then continued on to the high school team when I entered the ninth grade. It was then again that the coach sort of looked at me strangely, but she gave me a chance to prove how much I adored the sport. During high school, I found out about an adaptive team and soon enough began swimming with them also. Swimming is where it all started, but it isn't the only sport I have been successfully competing in.

I hope to entertain you all with stories of my sports life as well as other sports happenings going on across the country. If any of you have something you would like to ask me or if you have any sports you would like me to talk about, just let me know.

Thanks!