Keeping their eyes on the ball

The Team

Team members of the Las Vegas Stars Wheelchair softball team:

Kevin Bidwell, third base, pitcher; Kirk Fulkerson, first base; Annie Gallegos, outfield, assistant; Jim Haertel, outfield, second base; John Hart, shortstop, outfield; Karen Hinton, outfield; Ken Hinton, catcher; Bonnie McDonald, second base, manager; LC Merrill, outfield; April O'Donnell, catcher; Lupe Ortega, rover, shortstop; Butch Plotner, outfield, pitcher; Amy Pretty, outfield; Sue Sparks, third base; Richard Thatch, outfield, second base; Steven Tlockowski, outfield, first base; John VanGorder, pitcher; Scott Warnock, outfield.

The bases were loaded when Kevin Bidwell wheeled up to the plate.

The pitcher grabbed a ball from a nearby bucket and threw a soft-arched pitch. Bidwell swung, and with a solid hit knocked the ball beyond the outfielders.

The outfielders raced to the far reaches of the parking lot. Bidwell wheeled his wheelchair to first, then to second, then to third.

"Go home! Go home!" his team members yelled. Following the trail of the three teammates who preceded him, Bidwell bore down on his wheels and sped into home.

They call themselves the Las Vegas Stars Wheelchair Softball team, an 18-member mixture of men and women, quadriplegics, amputees and paraplegics.

As the team practiced at the Mojave High School parking lot on a recent Saturday morning, passers-by stopped to watch the game.

"It's hard to tell whether people are feeling sorry for us or whether they think it's great that we're doing this," said team member Richard Thatch, an amputee who lost both of his legs during a nine-year period.

Like others on the team, Thatch used to play ball in his pre-wheelchair days. He once tried out for the Chicago White Sox and the Cincinnati Reds and played community league baseball until 1986.

"It's the camaraderie that's nice," Thatch said of his new team. "There's got to be a ton of vets out there who would like to play."

For more information or to sponsor or play wheelchair softball, call 254-8404.

Members of the Stars, which is in its second year, are hoping to someday make it to the Wheelchair Softball Nationals, held annually in August.

For now, they would be content just to gain sponsors, uniforms, better wheelchairs -- and possibly a level playing field that has less traffic than the current one.

"Last week a bus drove through our game," Bonnie McDonald, the team's manager, said. "We need a field."

They could also use able-bodied teams willing to play in wheelchairs to scrimmage against.

More than anything, the team would like to gain more disabled players.

"It's a great way to get active again," said the 29-year-old Bidwell, who lost his left leg when he was 19.

But recruiting players has been a challenge for McDonald, who spent two years recruiting before the team was formed.

While wheelchair basketball and wheelchair track and field have been gaining popularity, not everyone has heard of wheelchair softball. Aside from quad rugby, wheelchair softball is one of the newest in wheelchair sports.

Other wheelchair sports are ice hockey, bowling, tennis, fencing -- even ballroom dancing.

"Any game you can think of, there's somebody playing it somewhere," team member Kirk Fulkerson said.

The sports are as varied as the interests and backgrounds of the players.

A softball player since she was 9 years old, McDonald became paralyzed from the waist down after a car accident when she was 15. She began playing wheelchair softball when she was 23. That year her team went to the nationals.

"When I go to nationals, I feel at ease," McDonald said, adding that she met Bidwell, her fiance, at a national softball tournament in Texas. "It's nice to be around your kind of people so you don't feel different."

Playing sports gives physically challenged people a chance to rediscover their worth, McDonald said.

The Stars practice two hours each Saturday and will accept anyone, regardless of athletic skill. It includes competitors who played the game when they were younger and walking, those who have played in wheelchair softball nationals and those who are hitting the ball for the first time.

Wheelchair softball closely resembles league softball, with some notable exceptions.

Because a quadriplegic formed the first wheelchair softball team, a quadriplegic player is required for each team.

It takes some adaptations. Ken Hinton, one of the Stars' quadriplegics, had a special bat created that holds his hand in place, because he cannot grip.

Jon Speake, commissioner for the National Wheelchair Softball Association and coach of the St. Paul Saints -- a Minnesota wheelchair softball team -- said he'd like to see the game grow.

The association began in 1976 and governs 30 teams. Most are located in the Midwest. The Las Vegas Stars is the area's first wheelchair softball team.

For various reasons people in wheelchairs are often reluctant to participate in sports, Speake said. Recently injured people are afraid of hurting themselves, he added. Many former jocks are afraid they won't perform as well as they did before the injury.

"But once we get them, we've got them for life," he said.

Because the association is still in the growing process, any team is welcome at the nationals. There are no qualifying regional and final competitions.

The national tournament is split into two divisions. Teams that lose two games in the first division have a chance to compete in the second division.

"I've seen remarkable things in Division II," Speake said. "I've seen brand new teams walk away with trophies."

But that's not quite enough to encourage members of the Las Vegas Stars Wheelchair Softball team, who laugh when asked if the team is ready for this year's nationals in August.

The nationals are far more competitive than the Stars, Bidwell said. "Players crash into everybody. They knock people out of their chairs. Normally you'll see double plays all the time.

"Right now we're just making it more fun so we can get people to play."

Kristen Peterson covers community affairs for the Sun. She can be reached at (702) 259-2317 or by e-mail at [email protected].

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