Spring Rollers provides adaptive sport for wheelchair athletes - Chron.com
Eric Lutz works on his serve as he warms up before practice with the Spring Rollers, a wheelchair tennis team, at Ridgewood Park Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2017, in The Woodlands
Eric Lutz works on his serve as he warms up before practice with the Spring Rollers, a wheelchair tennis team, at Ridgewood Park Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2017, in The Woodlands
Photo: Jason Fochtman, Staff Photographer
Eric Lutz works on his serve as he warms up before practice with the Spring Rollers, a wheelchair tennis team, at Ridgewood Park Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2017, in The Woodlands
Eric Lutz works on his serve as he warms up before practice with the Spring Rollers, a wheelchair tennis team, at Ridgewood Park Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2017, in The Woodlands
Photo: Jason Fochtman, Staff Photographer
Persephone Barrera laughs with coaches before warming up for practice with the Spring Rollers, a wheelchair tennis team, at Ridgewood Park Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2017, in The Woodlands
Persephone Barrera laughs with coaches before warming up for practice with the Spring Rollers, a wheelchair tennis team, at Ridgewood Park Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2017, in The Woodlands
Photo: Jason Fochtman, Staff Photographer
Eric Lutz warms up as he prepares to practice with the Spring Rollers, a wheelchair tennis team, at Ridgewood Park Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2017, in The Woodlands
Eric Lutz warms up as he prepares to practice with the Spring Rollers, a wheelchair tennis team, at Ridgewood Park Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2017, in The Woodlands
Photo: Jason Fochtman, Staff Photographer
Persephone Barrera warms up her arms before practice with the Spring Rollers, a wheelchair tennis team, at Ridgewood Park Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2017, in The Woodlands
Persephone Barrera warms up her arms before practice with the Spring Rollers, a wheelchair tennis team, at Ridgewood Park Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2017, in The Woodlands
Photo: Jason Fochtman, Staff Photographer
When she was younger, Berenice Rodriguez didn't believe sports would ever be her "thing." She has spinal muscular atrophy type 2 and primarily gets around by electric wheelchair.
Rodriguez believed sports weren't in the cards for her all the way into adulthood - that is until she was invited by a friend to attend the practice of the Spring Rollers, a wheelchair tennis team in The Woodlands.
"I've never played any sports, because I always thought I couldn't," Rodriguez said. "Even when you're in elementary (school), they isolate you a little bit when you're in a chair. They kind of put you in the corner and let you watch."
After much pressure, she finally agreed to go to practice - but only to watch. Her plan to sit courtside was derailed, however, by Stelios Vafiadis , founder of the Spring Rollers.
Vafiadis wouldn't hear any of Rodriguez's protests or uncertainty and immediately put a racquet in her hand. This was unusual for Rodriguez to experience, she said.
"The diagnosticians and the OT (occupational therapists) and PT (physical therapists), they always tell you what you can't do, rather than what you can do," Rodriguez said. "For a couple of hours, I forget I'm in the chair."
A longtime instructor and lover of tennis, Vafiadis created the Spring Rollers in March 2013 before passing away from lung cancer in December 2014. He is described as a man who spoke loudly and didn't believe in people declaring they can't accomplish something.
Jenny Lee, a physical therapist with Conroe ISD, took over as team manager in his absence. Lee chuckled, sharing that Vafiadis often would get in a wheelchair during practice to play, saying he had "bad knees."
It started as only Vafiadis and two players getting together at the Ridgewood Park tennis courts. Now, the team has roughly 10 players, multiple local volunteer instructors and official United States Tennis Association instructors.
A handful of the current Spring Rollers are part of the original crew, and they often try to recruit other people in wheelchairs who they believe may benefit from the team's camaraderie and friendship.
"I think we just enjoy seeing each other and networking with each other," said Raven Rivero, an original member of the Spring Rollers. "Being around someone with similar issues that you have experienced is great. … There has not really been any kind of programs of this type that I know of, at least for adaptive sports in The Woodlands."
While the weekly practices provide a space for the team members to play recreationally, it provides a platform for competitive wheelchair tennis as well.
Eric Lutz said he joined the Spring Rollers because he was attracted to Vafiadis' overwhelming passion for tennis. Lutz said Vafiadis "was a hard-driven man who just wanted success out of people."
As a child, Lutz was very active, playing soccer, racing bicycles and enjoying the competitiveness that came with sports.
"I still see myself as an athlete; it's a mind-set," Lutz said. "I needed to get that out, I needed to do something."
Now, Lutz is one of the more competitive players on the Spring Rollers, and he participated in two Houston tournaments last year, winning one in his division. In two weeks, he will attend an immersive tennis camp in Utah hosted by the USTA.
Long-term, he hopes to enroll at the University of Houston and participate in the new Adaptive Athletics organization. A previous member of the Spring Rollers, Carlos Salinas, is the president of that organization and is the friend who convinced Rodriguez to attend a practice.
The adaptive sport can be expensive. Each modified sport chair costs roughly $3,000. Recently, four Spring Rollers' members were fortunate enough to receive athletic chairs through the Challenged Athletes Foundation grant.
A user's daily wheels on a manual chair is not angled optimally for intense activity. The wheels on sport chairs are angled to allow quick turns and movement.
Other than the modified chair, the rules of wheelchair tennis are essentially the same - with the only difference being that players are allowed two bounces instead of one if they need it. Some players, like Lutz, will wedge the extra tennis balls in the spokes of the chair's wheels or wear gloves to help them grip the racquet and wheel.
Playing the game in a wheelchair requires a lot of coordination, upper-body strength and agility. Lee admitted that the times she has tried to play tennis in a wheelchair during practice, it has been much more difficult.
"It's not just the tennis, it's these people - their spirit, their determination, their joy," said Jeanne Edmonds, a new instructor for the Spring Rollers. "I think us who are volunteering get much more out of it than we give. ... My approach to it is, this is not wheelchair tennis. It's tennis players in wheelchairs."
The Spring Rollers meet every Wednesday from 4:30-6:30 p.m. at the Ridgewood Park tennis courts. To join the free practices or learn more about the sport, contact The Woodlands Township Parks and Recreation Department.
For more information or to get involved, contact Lee at Thelees100@yahoo.com or 832-754-1015.
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