People with disabilities keep moving with adaptive sports
Whenever she’s at the Prisma Roger C. Peace Adaptive Sports and Wellness Center, Danielle Fitzmorris can see the text on the lobby wall that reads, “Our community inspires a journey of hope and miracles.” But she can also see that message reflected in a face in a nearby photograph.
It shows a young woman trying waterskiing for the first time, on an outing sponsored by the Upstate Community Abilities Network (UCAN). She’s seated and secured in a specially adapted waterski. Two volunteers ski alongside her, supporting her on each side. She’s grasping the tow rope as water plumes up in her wake. Her eyes are shut, and she is beaming.
“She’s blind and deaf,” Fitzmorris, supervisor of recreational therapy at Roger C. Peace Rehabilitation Hospital (RCP), says of the first-time waterskier. “We were able to accommodate her needs with the help of her family and our volunteers. She knew how to signal to us in the boat if she was fearful or wanted to slow down or go faster. So that was really successful.”
The joy and inspiration provided by adaptive sports are evident in the other photos and testimonials that greet visitors to the Wellness Center. RCP, UCAN, other local organizations, and scores of volunteers have helped disabled people get on the ski slopes, participate in yoga, play golf, shoot hoops, and walk with the help of an exoskeleton.
“I feel like there’s nothing we can’t figure out or accomplish,” says Fitzmorris. “We just have to get creative sometimes.”
“They really do light up”
Preston King started taking adaptive yoga classes through RCP after losing his lower right leg to cancer two years ago.
“The instructors really do an amazing job of making it something that everyone’s able to do,” says King, who also does Pilates at the Adaptive Sports and Wellness Center. “Everybody in that class has been through something difficult, and even just the movement, plus the relaxation of yoga, is beneficial for everybody.”
A former collegiate golfer, King also got involved with Carolina Adaptive Golf (CAG), a nonprofit founded in 2018 by Brandon Worley, a US Army veteran who served in Afghanistan. During regular clinics at Top Golf and Shanks Driving Range, CAG provides specialized coaching and equipment, such as the VertaCat, a one-person golf cart that elevates the rider into a standing position, to make the activity accessible. More than 2,000 people participated in 2024, according to CAG.
Now serving as CAG’s director of advancement, King—who has kept his own game sharp enough to claim the Overall Division Winner trophy at the annual Palmetto State Adaptive Golf Open Championship last year—gets a lot of satisfaction out of working with disabled golfers.
“I see a lot of joy in their faces,” King says. “They really do light up, especially when they get a good shot.”
To the Fullest
And then there are the bicycles. which, in a way, are what brought the Wellness Center to Unity Park, adjacent to the Prisma Health Swamp Rabbit Trail, in August 2024.
“Originally, our adaptive cycling program had bikes that we were traveling with, packing them up in trailers twice a month,” says Fitzmorris. “We thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to have somewhere to store them on the trail?’ So then we found a space for storage, and it turned into the Adaptive Sports and Wellness Center, which provides so much more right now.”
Thanks to several grants, donations, and fundraisers, the selection of modified hand cycles and tricycles has grown and is available to the general public. Visibility is key to the mission, says Elizabeth Dubose, associate administrator at RCP.
“The location of this space is everything,” she says. “Our bikes can roll right out on the Swamp Rabbit Trail, and our ultimate vision is that we’re educating the Greenville community on adaptive sports. That’s when you really create that inclusive community.”
Of course, fielding a national championship wheelchair basketball team doesn’t hurt visibility, either. In 2023, The Roger C. Peace Rollin’ Tigers finished a 23-1 season with a victory in the prep division of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association tournament. The Tigers’ prep (ages 5-13) and varsity (ages 13-18) teams travel to tournaments all over the Southeast.
“Our players would like to play collegiate sports, just like every other child athlete dreams of doing,” says Fitzmorris. “It’s a really awesome opportunity for them, and it gives them the same thing that every other kid is working for in school sports.”
“It’s really about the whole person and their holistic health,” Dubose adds. “When people come out of the hospital, they want to be able to live their life again. So we offer that emotional, physical, mental, even spiritual connection, so that people can live life to the fullest.”
Prisma Health Roger C. Peace Adaptive Health and Wellness Center
Programs and equipment include:
- Physical, occupational and recreational therapy
- Adaptive cycling
- Bike rentals
- Adaptive yoga
- Adaptive wellness and fitness
- Cancer prevention and wellness services
157 Welborn St., Ste. B101, Greenville, prismahealth.org/locations/ambulatory-labs-other/rcp-rehabilitation-unity-park
