Sam Bailey Track and Field Stadium at the University of Alabama is home to several world-class student-athletes. UA’s Adapted Athletics para track and field program plans to add to that reputation and forge a legacy of its own.

UA’s program joins eight other collegiate para track and field squads in the United States at schools such as Arizona, Illinois, Michigan, and San Diego State.

“There are a few schools that have had this for a while, but there has been a lot of growth with new programs in the past three to four years,” said Evan Williams, UA para track and field head coach.

The program is in its second season. The team competed in five meets last season and competes in eight this season, including hosting a meet for the first time. It has grown from four student-athletes to eight.

This year’s roster consists of Alex Brown, wheelchair track racer; Dani Kanas, thrower; Zachary Carter, wheelchair track racer and thrower; Carson Fox, sprinter and thrower; Eric Francis, thrower; Spencer Kimbro, wheelchair track racer; Talan Smith, sprinter, and Parthasarathi Venkatram, wheelchair track racer.

The team is coached by Williams, Throwers Coach Nadia Jones, and Sprinters Coach Jimmy Dickson.

The student-athletes compete in the same events as their nondisabled peers, such as the 100-, 200-, 400-, 800- and 1,500-meter races. They also participate in the long jump, shot put, javelin, and discus throwing. It just looks a little different.

“Equipment is obviously the main difference. There’s also a huge difference with classifications,” Williams said. “In nondisabled track and field, everyone just runs against other people doing the same race. In para track and field, each person has a classification based on their disability and function. Then, even if they compete in the same heat as someone else, their times or marks are only compared to those in the same classification.”

UA’s team is putting in the work to showcase its talents and encourage other student-athletes.

Kanas, the only woman on the team and a thrower, is an original member of the team. She feels this is the start of something special for adapted track and field.

“When being one of the first athletes in the new program, it feels like we’re helping start something new in para track and field,” she said. “Even though universities like San Diego State and Michigan have had their programs for a couple of years before us, it still feels like we are contributing to getting para track and field to the collegiate level.”

Francis is a graduate student on the wheelchair basketball team. The creation of the para track and field program is another athletic outlet for him.

“It feels amazing to be a pioneering athlete of this sport at Alabama,” he said. “I still play basketball as my main sport. I just saw track as another opportunity to play a sport at this amazing place.”

Brown, a freshman, mirrors the excitement of helping get the program off the ground.

“I think it’s both a tremendous honor and responsibility to be one of the first athletes in this program,” said Brown, a track racer who hopes to set personal records in the 100-, 200- and 400-meter races this season.

“It’s a privilege to wear the Script A across my chest every time I compete. I want my performances to be worthy of that.”

Get set

Throwers Coach Jones is a physical therapist and former track and field athlete at the University of Alabama in Huntsville who has coached at the high school level, too. Coaching at the collegiate level with Adapted Athletics, Jones sees what is possible for the program and the student-athletes.

“The student-athletes have taught me a lot about hard work, determination and resilience. I am seriously blessed to be able to work with them in the coaching arena and in the training room. The other coaches made me feel like family since my first day,” she said.

“It’s the intangibles and the opportunities at Adapted Athletics that made me want to be a part of the program. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else coaching track and field.”

The things that make UA’s Adapted Athletics program stand out are not just attracting coaches and staff but student-athletes, too.

“Many of the athletes found out about our program last year. We connected and followed them in their senior year and then welcomed them in their freshman year,” Jones said. “Talan Smith competed in track and field at his high school, and I learned from him that there is already a large population of para-student-athletes competing for their high schools.

“He is extremely passionate about growing para track and field in the college arena. Listening to him talk always amps me up.”

Track and field can often seem like an individual sport. But these student-athletes are a team, and they want to see the program thrive.

“The highlight of my season so far has been watching our team grow closer together throughout the season. We started as strangers, but now we are truly a team,” Brown said. “I hope that we become the example for how collegiate para track and field programs around the country schedule and compete as we grow the sport collegiately across the nation.”

Fox said, “I hope that we can continue to grow and recruit more student-athletes and give more people the opportunity to compete at the next level past high school.”

Setting goals and setting the bar

Goals for the coaching staff include shaping the para track and field student-athletes into competitors beyond UA.

Paralympic hopefuls include Kanas, javelin, and shotput; Kimbro, 100- and 400-meter; and Smith, 100-, 200-meter, and long jump. The trio recently qualified for the USA Track and Field Olympic and Paralympic National Championships.

The team has even worked with the UA College of Engineering on projects to develop training equipment specifically for these student-athletes.

“One of my favorite things they have done is engineering the pull-up bar for the athletes to be able to safely do pull-ups on their own,” Jones said. “I also love the adjustments to the Concept 2 SkiERG training tool, which has made it more accessible to all the athletes in the arena.”

Engineering faculty and students built the para track and field program a portable shotput ring with attachments to anchor the throwing chair down.

“It’s really cool what these students are capable of creating. I hope that one day we can create more tools for throwing practice that will allow the student-athletes to practice on their own,” Jones said.

“This would mean lighter and sturdier equipment with return processes. It would afford them the same opportunities that a nondisabled throwing athlete has as far as throwing when and where they want to.”

Pushing forward

Williams believes similar para track and field programs are on the rise.

“A big goal of our program is to establish more intercollegiate competition and hopefully find a governing body that can help us progress the sport on this level. I would love to have a college nationals meet for our student-athletes to compete for their universities,” Jones said.

“We’ve been making a stronger push toward para intercollegiate competitions. This year we have gotten other colleges to be more open to this. We hope that sometime in the future, each program will put on its own college meet. This year there have already been more than last year,” she said.

Check out the Adapted Athletics website, Instagram and Facebook to learn more about its sports and student-athletes.

Courtesy of the University of Alabama.

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