Taking another shot at gold
Former Port resident Kaitlyn Verfuerth,
the top woman wheelchair
tennis player in the country,
will face the world's best
at Paralympic Games in Beijing



PRO TENNIS PLAYER Kaitlyn Verfuerth displayed the racket,
wheelchair and clothing provided by sponsors who are helping
pay her expenses to the Paralympic Games in Beijing, China, and to
Grand Slam tournaments, including the Australian Open
where the photo was taken.

By CAROL POMEDAY
Ozaukee Press staff
Posted 7-23-08

Professional wheelchair tennis player Kaitlyn Verfuerth is in her hometown of Port Washington for a few days before playing tournaments in St. Louis and Canada in preparation for the Paralympic Games Sept. 6 to 17 in Beijing, China.

Verfuerth, 22, who lives in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., is the No. 1 female wheelchair tennis player in the United States and is ranked 12th worldwide by the International Tennis Federation.

“Earlier this summer, I was in the top 10, but my ranking dropped because I haven’t played in as many tournaments. I want to get back to 10th by the time I go to Beijing,” Verfuerth said as she relaxed with her mother Katherine “Kitchie” Allen on the patio of the home where she grew up.

Allen will go to Beijing to watch her daughter play and hopes to see her wheel onto the winner’s podium.

This will be Verfuerth’s second Paralympics, which is held a week after the Olympics at the same venue. Four years ago, she competed in Athens, Greece, and made it to the quarterfinals in doubles competition. In singles play, she won two matches, but lost her third one.

Verfuerth hasn’t played as many tournaments this year because she qualified for the U.S. wheelchair tennis team last August when she won gold medals in both singles and doubles at the Pan-Am wheelchair games in Brazil.

She and her doubles partner, Beth Arnoult of Paira, Hawaii, are the only women on the U.S. team. The men’s team has four players on the para team and three on the quad team for athletes paralyzed from the neck down.

Verfuerth is more confident heading into this year’s Paralympics than she was four years ago. She and Arnoult are seeded fourth at the games.

“This year, I’m less nervous and will focus more on my competition, but I’ll still be nervous. I’m always nervous,” Verfuerth said. “The Paralympics is way different than tournaments.”

The woman to beat, she said, is Esther Vergeer of the Netherlands, who hasn’t lost a tournament in three years.

Verfuerth has competed this year in Australia, New Zealand, Florida, Louisiana, Japan, Italy and Poland, often alongside top able-bodied tennis players, including Venus and Serena Williams, Roger Federer and Andre Agassi.

“In the past two years, the U.S. Open, Wimbledon and other Grand Slam tournaments have had a wheelchair division at the same time,” Verfuerth said. “A lot of the tournaments have two sites, so we can watch each other and get to know each other.”

For the first time, the Paralympics will be televised in the U.S., something that has occurred in Europe for years.

“Wheelchair athletes are well known in Europe. When we go through airports, everyone knows the Dutch and European players,” Verfuerth said.

Allen is in awe of her daughter’s accomplishments and sometimes Verfuerth is as well.

At a recent camp for wheelchair tennis players, one of the top junior players was asked who she looks up to.

“She said she wanted to be like me,” Verfuerth said. “That really hit me.”

Verfuerth was paralyzed from the waist down in a car accident when she was 7 and spent 96 days in the hospital. Her mother was also injured in the accident.

Almost from the day she came home, Verfuerth has tackled each challenge head on and insisted on being treated the same as others.

She considers her wheelchair an extension of her body, especially when she plays tennis. Her first wheelchair sports were basketball and road racing.

She was introduced to wheelchair tennis when she was 14 and was a member of the Port Washington High School tennis team with her friends.

Verfuerth competed against able-bodied players in high school. The only concession for wheelchair players is the ball can bounce twice.

The tennis star credits the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater adaptive recreation program for introducing her to the joys and challenges of wheelchair sports and adventures.

From ages 8 to 15, she spent one weekend every month at adventure camps, where she went rock climbing, whitewater rafting, hang gliding and exploring caves. Students in rehabilitation programs were the counselors.

“I learned most of my independence there,” Verfuerth said. “We did a lot of great stuff, and they were my mentors. I saw other disabled people and how they lived and realized I could be independent and not rely on my parents.

“There were six of us girls who went to the camps and we would talk girl stuff and about boys. We could talk about personal, embarrassing things that can happen when you’re in a wheelchair that my other friends couldn’t really understand.”

Verfuerth played in her first wheelchair tennis tournament when she was 15 and she was hooked. Homestead High School tennis coach Jackie Egelhoff of Mequon was her wheelchair tennis instructor.

“Even though I didn’t do very good, I wanted to play more,” she said. “Tennis became my passion. I had people I looked up to who played tennis and they helped me.”

Verfuerth soon became one of the top junior players in the country.

She played tennis at the University of Arizona but left the team to train for the Paralympics in Athens and moved to California.

When she returns from Beijing, Verfuerth will return to school to complete her degree in vocational rehabilitation with a minor in nutrition at Mount San Antonio College in Walnut, Calif.

Her boyfriend Anthony Lara, who has spina bifida, is an alternate on the U.S. men’s Paralympic team. He works for a medical company and runs a pediatric adaptive sports program, which Verfuerth helps him with.

“This is the first time I dated someone who is in a wheelchair,” Verfuerth said. “We met at a tournament overseas and I didn’t know he was from the United States at first. It’s nice because we understand what each other is going through. He also understands the demands of tennis.”

Both are members of the Inland Valley Wheelchair Tennis Association, a nonprofit organization that puts on wheelchair tennis camps and demonstrations and raises money for wheelchair athletes.

Verfuerth is also a volunteer counselor on the spinal cord injury unit at the local hospital.

“Basically, we’re there to show that being disabled doesn’t mean you’re stuck in a wheelchair in the house. Your life isn’t over,” she said. “You can live a healthy and active lifestyle, but you have to be proactive.

“Sometimes people get really depressed and they need to find that determination. We can’t do it for them. Once that happens, their attitude totally changes.

“It’s a good feeling for me when that happens. Whatever they have a passion for in life — whether it’s tennis or basketball or painting — they can grab onto it and do it and be proud of who they are.

“Tennis is my passion, but I also have a passion for helping people.”

While some people think the accident and her injury were a tragedy, Verfuerth said it’s just the opposite.

“I look at it as a blessing,” she said. “I can’t even imagine what my life would be like otherwise. I wouldn’t be doing these things or meeting these people.”