BLACKSBURG – For the past six months, the Virginia Tech men's tennis team has hosted a weekly wheelchair tennis clinic at the Burrows-Burleson Tennis Center. Head coach Jim Thompson's student-athletes voluntarily lead instruction for local adaptive athletes seeking to dive into the sport. On Sunday, Nov. 14, members of the United States Paralympic Wheelchair Tennis team held a public exhibition and clinic in partnership with Hokies tennis.
"It's been super eye-opening for me to make friends that are in a wheelchair and want to play a sport that we always played," Thompson said. "We have a vision to grow this and get more people aware of it."
When Jim Thompson had the idea to get his team involved in wheelchair tennis, he wanted every age group to be represented. To his credit, seemingly all ages on the spectrum have shown up. Attendees ranged from Scott Willis, 48, to Parker Burgard, 8. There's no separation amongst the ages in their drills either. Everyone competes and trains together as a unit.
"With any adaptive sport, people kind of have this idea that, 'Oh, this is sort of a rec thing,'" said Jacob Tyree, 29, who previously played for the U.S. National Wheelchair Basketball team. "We are here to compete."
The idea to start the clinic originated when Thompson met Burgard through his wife, B'easy, a school psychologist in Floyd County. Thompson and his son Frank, who is also a member of the Tech men's tennis team, started practicing with him when he was four years old. Burgard was diagnosed with spina bifida as an infant and has used a wheelchair as well as crutches his entire life.
Hokies student-athletes Michael Shepheard, Jordan Chrysostom and Frank Thompson usually oversee the practice activities amongst the participants. The Hokies tennis players split time between instructing on foot and actually sitting in a sport wheelchair to scrimmage with the adaptive athletes.
Gallery: (11-16-2021) MTEN: Hokies host wheelchair tennis clinics & Team USA
"The most fun aspect of this really is putting a smile on the athletes' faces," Shepheard said, who has been connected with wheelchair tennis since his childhood in Australia. "A lot of the time the kids are in a shell because of being in a wheelchair. When they come here, they can open up and be themselves."
A tidal wave of positivity washes over everyone at the BBTC when the Hokies host a wheelchair tennis clinic. Drew Lucas, 11, traverses in his wheelchair across the courts with a smile, sharing kind-hearted jabs with both attendees and the Hokies student-athletes. Tyree wallops each serve with precision and focus, yet takes the time to encourage each of his fellow adaptive athletes. It's this type of optimistic attitude and outlook that drives Frank Thompson to continue to participate in the clinic on a weekly basis.
"As a tennis player, we go through our own injuries and challenges that we think are really tough," Thompson said. "To see how resilient these guys are to be playing tennis in a wheelchair is incredible."
The first clinic was held in the early spring of 2020, but weekly sessions were halted at the start of the pandemic. Those sessions picked back up again in May of 2021. Jason Harnett, the head coach of the U.S. National Wheelchair Tennis Team, has been in contact with Coach Thompson for the entirety of the program's existence. Their exchanges culminated in the idea of a public showcase for Team USA to hold an exhibition and provide instruction for aspiring adaptive athletes in Blacksburg.
"I think Coach Thompson has a fabulous team of people here," Harnett said. "Just getting the young people engaged in a different side of the tennis world they might not know about. They've been fantastic."
Harnett brought four decorated paralympians to the BBTC to showcase the sport in front of a crowd of Virginia Tech student-athletes, staff and Blacksburg community members. After the doubles exhibition, the paralympians stuck around to introduce many aspiring wheelchair tennis players and their families to the sport first-hand. Dana Mathewson, the top-rated female wheelchair tennis player in the United States, felt encouraged by Virginia Tech men's tennis' efforts to grow the sport.
"It's been awesome to meet all of the young people trying tennis for the first time, it reminds me of myself growing up," said Mathewson, who participated in both the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo games. "Paralympics are underrepresented, so to see a bunch of people coming here today to see us is a great step forward in growing our sport."
Team USA's arrival on campus brought an impressive crowd to the BBTC, including appearances from Virginia Tech President Timothy Sands and Director of Athletics Whit Babcock.
"It's wonderful on a lot of levels," Babcock said. "It's obviously great for Team USA, and I think it's also wonderful for our student-athletes to be a part of it and do something great for the community and remind us what's good about sports."
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