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Assistant Professor Wellington De Luna Vazquez is bringing his expertise with Paralympic sports to UTampa students and wheelchair users. He, students and Visiting Assistant Professor Jason Rabe recently attended — in the name of research — a sanctioned National Wheelchair Basketball Association tournament in Tampa.

The UTampa team was there to collect data from wheelchair users on the Wheely-X, a wheelchair exerciser recently acquired by the Department of Health Sciences and Human Performance.

De Luna Vazquez is head coach of the Puerto Rican goalball team, and Rabe has experience with wheelchair basketball within the community. Last fall, the professors, both of whom taught ESC-400, physical education fitness for special populations, teamed up and wanted students to be a part of their research.

“Students are the cornerstone on everything we do; they support initiatives,” said De Luna Vazquez. “We identified a couple of students, and these two students jumped into the idea. They felt it was a great opportunity for them to work around research and learn from us.”

Heather Schofield, a sophomore studying allied health and physical therapy sciences, joined the project. She had been in Rabe’s class, where she participated in a wheelchair basketball clinic and also attended a Paralympic sports exhibition day on campus. 

Kelly Garcia Avila, a junior studying allied health with a concentration in occupational therapy, said she was introduced to the research when she took De Luna Vazquez’s class.

The team now studies how using the Wheely-X, which is akin to a stationary bike and can be used for fitness and exercise, builds confidence in users’ abilities, users’ confidence in themselves to complete tasks and the individuals’ abilities to use the device. De Luna Vazquez said they also are looking at users’ mental strain.

At the wheelchair basketball tournament, the students helped with pre- and post-research questions and monitored safety and physical and mental well-being while participants were using the Wheely-X. 

In addition to the student researchers, other students from Rabe’s class volunteered during the games, taking video and keeping score.

Before being introduced to adaptive sports in class, Schofield didn’t have experience in this area. Now she plans to become a physical therapist and wants to work in adaptive sports.

“Getting patients to be able to remain active and stay healthy, using all their abilities and working with their limitations in adaptive sports, as opposed to saying, ‘Oh, like, you just can’t play at all’ ... would be literally my ideal dream career path,” she said.

In the future, the team hopes to conduct further research on disabled populations who participate in sports.