Story By Charity Cohen
Video By Kirstyn Clark
Photos by Ellie Crowther-Dias
Kelly Flouhouse stood on the diving board at her neighbor’s pool. It was a warm August and she was home for summer break from graduate school where she was working on her doctorate degree in clinical psychology.
She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and took the plunge into the pool.
When she opened her eyes, she was lying on her back inside a helicopter with no sensation in her body. She had hit head on the bottom of the pool, breaking her neck and leaving her as a quadraplegic.
“I had a broken neck and broken dreams,” she recalled. “I was driven and I had an ending in sight of where I wanted to be and at that moment I didn’t know what my future would entail.”
She doesn’t remember much about the year she spent in a hospital or the six months in a skilled nursing facility. But she does remember the day she came to an adaptive tennis match.
“I went very hesitantly, I arrived doubtful because the person that I saw in the mirror did not reflect a person that could play tennis,” Flouhouse said.
On the court, she witnessed disabled individuals playing tennis, laughing, smiling, making friends, and enjoying life. All things that she never thought she’d be able to do as a quadriplegic.
“I was like, ‘wow, I can do this. I can not only play tennis, but I can live my life.’ It was a game changer for me and it motivated me to do more on and off the court.”
Today, Flouhouse is co-executive for Wheel Serve NC, a non-profit, volunteer-driven organization that brings wheelchair tennis players together around the state. The organization, with 45 wheelchair players and 30 volunteers, hosts clinics and tournaments. But most importantly, Wheel Serve NC builds community, members say.
“Tennis was the avenue for getting me introduced into my new world–into my life,” says Eric Pierce, a Wheel Serve NC wheelchair tennis player.
The co-founder of Wheel Serve NC, Helen Leonard, is an able-bodied player, who has seen the lack of opportunities for wheelchair players in her US Tennis Association leagues.
After meeting with USTA North Carolina, Leonard and Flouhouse were able to create the state’s first community tennis association for wheelchair players.
“I love that they act as mentors for each other and are resources for each other,” Leonard said. “And then, from my perspective as an able bodied player, I have learned so much.”
The organization currently has six programs across the state: Charlotte, Cary, Wilmington, Asheville, Piedmont and Sandhills. The programs welcome wheelchair tennis players of all-levels, from beginners to pros. Clinics help newcomers adapt equipment and playing style: Flouhouse for instance can move her arms a little, but cannot hold anything with her hands. She learned how to tape her racket to her hand and use her arms and body to swing for serves and returns.
Through grants, Wheel Serve NC has been able to help wheelchair players fund their own wheelchairs that are conducive to playing tennis. Unlike standard wheelchairs, wheelchairs for tennis are built for acceleration, balance and agility.
“A chair is your key to independence, that means you can go out and play every day of the week, not just the one day a week of the program,” Flouhouse said.
A partnership with Western Wake Tennis in Cary provides a weekly wheelchair tennis program that is held at Cary Tennis Park. One of the program goals is to integrate the game of tennis so that both able-bodied and wheelchair tennis players can play together. The standing player gets one bounce whereas the wheelchair players get an extra bounce before returning the ball over the net.
“It really fulfills a big part of our mission, because we’re showing that there’s no difference in wheelchair tennis except for the two bounces,” Flouhouse said.
This year, Wheel Serve NC and Western Wake Tennis Association were able to try this format out as they hosted their first “Polar Doubles Up/Down Tournament. “
Under the covered courts at Cary Tennis Park, Seventeen pairings, consisting of one wheelchair player and one standing player. The thud of tennis balls hitting the ground, and the pop as they made contact with rackets; the pounding of feet and the clinking of wheelchairs, filled the covered courts. There was laughter, words of encouragement, handshakes and hugs.
“The camaraderie is really everything to this,” Gary Grindell, a wheelchair tennis player, said. “Everybody’s very, very supportive of each other and it’s just really great.”
Grindell, who was involved in a Jeep accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down says the community that has been created through tennis has been life changing.
“To tell you the honest truth, this happened to me 42 years ago and these have been the greatest years of my whole life,” he said. “I’ve had great opportunities to meet a ton of incredible people from all over the world and in chairs, out of chairs.”
Laura Weygandt, president of Wheel Serve NC and executive director at Western Wake Tennis Association hopes to make this tournament an annual program.
“Tennis is more than just the sport. There’s social benefits, mental benefits and physical benefits,” she said. “People came out, they had an opportunity to get out, be with people and meet new people.”
Weygandt says the impact of this wheelchair tennis program is one that is felt by all who are involved.
“What I get out of this is to meet so many people that have true hardship in their life, and they come out and they’re so positive and they’re so inclusive,” Weygandt said as she fought back tears. “So when I leave after a wheelchair clinic, I feel like we’ve done something really nice for some people and they’ve done something really nice for me too.”
For Flouhouse, her desire has been to give people their autonomy and zeal for life back in the same way that she has saved hers.
“I realized after this accident, and I got involved with tennis, that it hit the play button on life,” Flouhouse said. “So I really encourage everybody to hit the play button, no matter what you’re doing in life because you can’t live on pause.”
