Jacqui Alegria
Published: April 13 2004
As the end of the day creeps near and the sun begins to set on a long day of school, work, and errands, many of us look forward to an evening of blissful vegetation. We want nothing more than to collapse into the sofa and be done with the exhausting day.
But around the time we begin to put our aching feet on the coffee table for an hour of our favorite guilty-pleasure TV show, one PJC student is getting out his sneakers and rolling out to his car for an hour’s drive to a gym in Mobile.
Robbie Coker, an Adult Basic Education student, makes this trek twice weekly during the wheelchair basketball season to attend practice from 7 to 9 p.m. for the Mobile Patriots.
For these two hours, he can be found in a gathering of other wheelchair athletes practicing lay-ups, perimeter shots, going over plays, and scrimmaging against each other to prepare for their competitive season.
Coker, 20, who is in his second year of play, has found that being involved in wheelchair basketball has not only given him “a better game” but also a better perspective on life.
“It helps pick up my spirits – that’s the main thing,” he said. “It has given me more confidence and I also get to meet new people.”
During the season, he and his teammates have the opportunity to meet an array of new people – abled and disabled alike- as they travel all over the Southeastern Conference to play in tournaments in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
Coker, who was born with spina bifida, a brain stem defect that caused paralysis, admits that there is not a big fan following for wheelchair basketball.
“It’s mostly just the friends and family of the players that come to the games,” he said
That may be because of the public’s lack of knowledge about the sport, according to Coker.
“A lot of regular athletes don’t think that we’re athletes,” he explained. “I want to enlighten people on disability and show them we’re just like everyone else.”
The games may not draw crowds as large as college or even high school games, but that does not take away from the positive effects it has had on Coker, who plans on playing for a long time to come.
Even if it means traveling for four hours twice a week during the season to attend practice, it is worth it to Coker.
“It’s an adrenaline rush for me. I love being on the court,” he said.
So while many of us begin to turn off our television and prepare to say good night to the long day, Robbie Coker is beginning to travel that familiar road from Mobile back to Pensacola with a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.
It is something that he hopes he will be able to do for years to come.
“I’ll play as long as I can,” he said. “There’s nothing better in the world.”