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Inspiration On Wheels
By Hector Farula

Words Of Encouragement From Two Exceptional Young Men.

One thing that I have always loved about paintball is the people who participate in this sport.
If you play often, you will meet all kinds of interesting people with great stories to tell.
Paintballers are generalized by some as wild and care free, aggressive and rebellious youth,
and in some cases, they may be right. But in my travels, I have met some of the most
fascinating and inspirational people on this face of the earth...

Meet Alex Uhouse. Alex resides in Roundrock, Texas, and is your average 15 year old kid. He
loves to watch football and listen to his favorite rock groups, Nickelback, and Inflames, a
band from Sweden. His favorite football teams are The Texas Longhorns, and The Green Bay
Packers. He likes to work out, and hang out with his friends. Alex also has an identical twin
brother. Cool. One of the things he loves the most is paintball. He loves the sport and he
loves to play. Alex plays speed ball and calls Outlaw Paintball, in Phlugerville ,Texas, his
home field.

37 year old Victor Jennings is a mail carrier from California, and he spends his days
delivering mail for a large college style campus. When the weekend comes, Victor gears up,
and plays paintball with his friends. He has been playing for about 3 years, and has been
hooked ever since. He and his friends have played at... These two gentlemen are a part of
millions of people that participate in this extreme sport, and are no different than the rest,
except for the one thing that they both have in common: Both of these individuals have
cerebral palsy and have no use of their lower extremities. They both use electric
wheelchairs for mobility.

You must be wondering how these guys carry on normal lives, let alone play paintball with
their disabilities, but they are living proof that having a disability is not a reason to sit back
and waste away when there is so much in life to experience. In fact, thousands of disabled
Americans spend their days working normal 9 to 5 jobs, and participating in recreational
activities that would not make them seem to be disabled at all.

Alex Uhouse is heavily involved at St David's center in Texas, witch is dedicated to helping
many disabled people live normal lives. He has been skiing, fishing, and helps others there
learn how to deal with their disabilities. Alex works out 4 times a week with his good friend,
Rob Boothby. Together, they practice to compete in "murderball", witch is actually
quadriplegic rugby. Roger is a player for the Texas Stampede, a team of disabled athletes
that competes in murderball. This sport is not for the faint at heart, and physical contact is
guaranteed. Broken bones occur regularly, and participants are commonly thrown from their
wheelchairs. Alex says that the workout he uses for murderball actually helps his
performance in paintball The pushing and pulling exercises he uses helps him to handle his
paintball marker with control, and he hopes that it makes him strong enough someday to use
a manual wheelchair. He also strives to compete in the sport of Murderball Because he has
limited use of his hands, he uses a electric chair for paintball.

Victor Jennings lives with his roomate, Mr Brian Kidd. Brian has been bitten by the paintball
bug for a few years now. And he loves every minute of it. His friends played, and asked him
to join them one day. He has been a regular ever since. One day, Victor , Brian, and some
friends were sitting around the house, and decided to play some backyard paintball. Victor
said that he would like to try to play, so Brian Concocted a device that would allow Victor to
shoot a paintball marker that was attached to his wheelchair. Brian used some electric
pieces that he picked up at Radio Shack, along with some pvc pipe, and he invented a push
button trigger that let Victor both steer and shoot at the same time. The rest is history..They
took their inventions to the drawing board, made some improvements, and now, Victor does
not only plays, but he plays well! Friends that went paintballing with him were a little
reluctant to actually try to shoot him at first, but after Victor continually peppered them with
paint, they decided that he was too accurate with his setup to give him any mercy! He likes
that he is treated equally when he plays paintball, and that he can be an effective player, as
well.
Alex says that people didnt want to play with him at first, for the fear of being unfair, but after
they noticed him eliminating a few players they gave him no slack, and he loved it! The
people at his home field are very supportive of him, and Alex wishes to see more wheelchair
players get involved in paintball, so that it may also become a sport in the Special Olympics.
His competitive nature, and his love of the sport makes him an advocate for wheelchair
paintball. He would like Paintball in general to be as big as Monday Night Football, and
televised more frequently.

Both of these gentlemen find the need for an international paintball wheelchair league,
because they know that others around the world would like to get involved. While surfing
through the web, I ran into a site called Mount N Shoot, a company that is dedicated to
making products for wheelchair bound hunters and shooters. They also created a paintball
platform that allows people with disabilities to play. I spoke to the founder, and C.E.O of the
group, Mr Andrew D. Pope, and he tells me that he has noticed an increase in disabled
individuals who are interested in playing paintball. Mr. Pope, A decorated veteran, Has
worked closely with disabled American Veterans who fell the desire to take part in activities
such as hunting, sport shooting, and paintball. He devises products that help people take
part in shooting sports with some form of "Normalcy". Expect to see a rise in products aimed
at the disabled to help them take part in more extreme activities. Mr. Pope is currently
looking to create such an international paintball league for people with disabilities, and
would like anyone who may be interested in knowing more may contact him at
MountNShoot
@verizon.net.

My Own Personal Disability:
In April of 2006, I was injured in an accident that occurred at my job that would leave my hand
permanently disabled and disfigured. When my doctor first gave me this news, It didn’t
sink in immediately. This independent, and adventurous person that I have always been was
going to have to make some changes in how he lives from day to day. One of my greatest
fears was that the I would not be able to participate in the sport that has been my passion for
the last 12 plus years.

The psychological impact of this first drove me into a state of depression, not just because
of paintball, but because I would be able to do the "manly" duties around my home. No
longer could I handle the trash and the compacter door at the same time, or grab my
youngest daughter and toss her into the air in one of our infamous tickle wars. My wife can
no longer rely on me as she used to with the groceries, but its not like I lost the use of both
of my hands. I can lift very light objects like rolls of paper towels or a loaf of sliced bread. I
can make a peanut butter sandwich, but I cannot twist open the jar.

When I first ran across Mr. Alex Uhouse's disabled paintballers group on Myspace, I wanted
to talk with him, and find out more about his group. At the time, I had just found out that my
injuries were permanent, with no means of surgical correction. Alex and I spoke with each
other numerous times on the phone, and we got to know a little about each other's situation.
I had shared with him my feelings of depression on my newly formed disabilities, and
throughout this time that we spoke, Alex has become, to me, a tremendous symbol of hope
and strength. He gave me some of the best advice I have gotten since my accident
occurred. He told me once to never let my disabilities stop me from doing what I love to do.
There will always be a way to work around them. These words have kept me strong on more
than one occasion. While I cannot compare what he and I goes through on a day to day, he
helped my fight my own personal battle, and for that Alex, I am grateful. Thank You. Alex is
the captain of his team. Austin Sins, and they look forward to entering local tournaments and
events. If anyone is interested in sponsoring these exceptional young men, please contact
Hector at
stickemup45@aol.com.

These days, my paintball participation is extremely limited. No longer am I able to push myself
to extreme limits, but I am still effective as a back player. I do the best that I can, and I do
quite well, thanks to a special brace that I use when I play. I miss being able to compete with
more aggression, but I am thankful for still being able to play. Its funny how we see some
people struggle with their day to day dilemmas, and we wonder if their limitations are just
because they are not dedicated and focused enough to complete they're tasks at hand. I
have friends that would not dare set foot in a paintball field, because of their fears of getting
dirty, or the slight, temporary sting of a shot. I have witnessed tremendous talent being
wasted, tossed out of the window because some people did not have the will , or the drive,
to achieve their dreams. Upon meeting Alex and Victor, I now feel that there is nothing that I
cannot achieve in this short life, and setbacks are temporary. There is always a way, if the
will is present. I would like to thank these to men for inspiring me to write this story. God
bless. Keep Ballin.