On a recent autumn afternoon, a young man sits behind the front desk at Birmingham's Lakeshore Foundation, answering phone calls and welcoming visitors. Nothing strange about that. After all, most organizations and companies have a greeter in some capacity.

What's different here is that this person is much more than just a hired employee punching the clock and earning a paycheck. He is Clayton Brackett, a medal-winning member of the United States wheelchair rugby team.

This is part of the dual world of the Lakeshore Foundation, which serves as both a rehabilitation facility for people with physical disabilities, and as an official U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Site. As a result, it is not unusual to see a child with cystic fibrosis swimming in the lane next to a world-class Paralympic athlete in Lakeshore's pool. Or an injured military veteran working out alongside a gold medal-winning wheelchair basketball player.

"That's one of the things that makes Lakeshore truly special," says Mandy Goff, high performance manager of USA Wheelchair Rugby, which uses Lakeshore as its regular training facility. "People with disabilities get to work out in the same fitness center and swim in the same pool as this multitude of athletes. They can talk to them and watch them train."

Brackett is one of those athletes. A native of California, Brackett has been paralyzed from the waist down ever since suffering what he called "a freak fall" when he was less than 2 years old. He began playing wheelchair basketball on various club teams in California, then eventually switched to wheelchair rugby. He moved to Birmingham in 2013 and began working out--and working--at the Lakeshore Foundation.

"Lakeshore is an incredible facility," says Brackett, who was part of the USA team that won gold in both the 2017 Japan Para Wheelchair Rugby Championship and the IWRF Americas Zone Championship in Paraguay. "Everything here is designed for people with disabilities. And if they don't know how to do something, they'll figure it out. They're really at the forefront of disabled sports."

But one of the things Brackett enjoys most about Lakeshore is the interaction between athletes such as himself and the general population that uses the facility for its rehabilitation services. Lakeshore was designated as an official Paralympic training site by the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) in 2003.

Approximately 150 to 160 disabled athletes come to the facility each year to train at the same place that has served the general Birmingham-area community since the founding of the Lakeshore Rehabilitation Hospital in 1973.

"You're almost like a mentor to everybody who walks in the building," Brackett says of being a Paralympian at Lakeshore. "A lot of the people here know me and know what I do. So they will ask questions about my training. They'll come watch the games. They find inspiration in having people here who let them know what is possible to achieve.

"People with disabilities sometimes have this stigma that it's hard for them to be active. Lakeshore provides a place that allows them to be active, and they're also around similar people who have had success in sports. There's a great need for that."

In fact, it is one of the primary goals of the facility, according to Lakeshore Foundation president Jeff Underwood. So it is common for Lakeshore to have an athletic event one weekend, hold a camp for injured military members the following weekend, and in between, continue working with the general disabled population.

"We think there is value in having that blend of different groups here, who get to meet each other and talk with each other, all of whom share something in common related to their health condition," Underwood says. "Let's say you're a local 10-year-old child with a disability. Now you can come to Lakeshore, to a Paralympic training site, and you're around elite-level athletes who look like you do and have the same challenges that you do. That is a tremendous opportunity for that child."



Play On



Sports have long been an important part of Lakeshore, beginning with the formation of the Birmingham Chariots wheelchair basketball team in the 1970s. Wheelchair basketball proved to be so popular that other sports programs were gradually added to Lakeshore's offerings, including tennis, swimming, track, and aerobics. In 1984, all these fitness and recreation programs were organized under a new entity called the Lakeshore Foundation.

"We have to applaud the leadership of the hospital 40 years ago for recognizing how important it was that when people went home after they were discharged from, say, a spinal cord injury, that they needed to be physically active," Underwood says. "That was probably somewhat of a radical approach at the time."

Lakeshore continued to expand its sports facilities over the years, including the construction of a 126,000-square-foot fieldhouse with three hardwood courts and a 200-meter indoor track, as well as an aquatics center, a fitness center, and a shooting range. By the time the 1996 Olympic and Paralympic Games were held in Atlanta, Lakeshore officials felt the center had developed into a premier sports facility for people with disabilities, so they approached the USOC about the possibility of becoming an official training site.

"We told them that we have the expertise and the ability to play a national role in disabled sports through a partnership with the USOC," says Underwood, who now serves on the USOC Paralympic Advisory Council. "We felt like we were ready to step up from being just a local club program to a national training program."

In addition to having facilities that are specifically accessible for Paralympic athletes, Lakeshore provides on-site lodging and access to nutritionists, trainers, videographers, and even sports psychologists. Some of these services are provided by full-time Lakeshore employees, while other specialists are brought in from throughout the Birmingham community.

"There are a lot of great facilities out there where Paralympic athletes can train, but a lot of times they feel more clinical," says Goff, who has been with Lakeshore for nearly 10 years. "Here, we try to make sure that the athletes don't have to worry about anything.

"Our athlete services coordinator, Laurie Berenotto, knows these athletes and what they need. She knows if they have certain food allergies, or if there is something in particular that they like. So after an athlete has been here once, when they come back they feel like they're at home. Every athlete here should be able to focus just on training and not worry about anything else, and I feel like we're able to offer that."

Lakeshore also is taking the lead when it comes to scientific research of Paralympic athletes, with staff members dedicated to analyzing such details as lung capacity, body temperature, blood circulation, recovery time, and overall strength and flexibility.

"These teams know we have the capability for performance testing, and a lot of them are taking advantage of that," Underwood says. "More and more teams are turning to science to try to get that extra edge in performance and competitiveness. We definitely have an interest in growing that part of our program."



Going for Gold

Lakeshore played a role in Team USA's success at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio, which was the team's best performance since the 1996 Atlanta Games. The men's and women's wheelchair basketball teams captured gold, the wheelchair rugby team took home silver after a one-point overtime loss to Australia, and the women's goalball team (a sport for visually-impaired athletes) claimed the bronze. Many of the athletes who took home medals had previously trained at Lakeshore's facilities.

The USOC certainly seems pleased with the work that the Lakeshore Foundation is doing. In 2013, the organization presented Lakeshore with the Rings of Gold award in recognition of the foundation's work to help disabled children become involved in sports.

"Lakeshore is an outstanding partner for us," says Rick Adams, chief of Paralympic sport and National Governing Body organizational development for the USOC. "They are very important on a leadership and training basis, and an integral part of our overall high-performance plan. We've had a lot of our athletes go through Lakeshore."

This includes Jennifer Schuble, a native of Lake Charles, Louisiana, who grew up in Houston. Schuble has long had a love for cycling, so much so that she was riding a bike without training wheels while still in preschool. As she grew older, Schuble began competing in triathlons, with the cycling portion easily being her best event.

In 1999, Schuble enrolled at The University of Alabama. She graduated with a degree in operations management and began working as an engineer in the production control department at Mercedes-Benz. A year after graduation, Schuble was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, which affects her balance and motor function. But she quickly learned that physical activity helps to reduce her MS symptoms.

It was around this time that Schuble was introduced to the Lakeshore Foundation's Paralympic training facilities. She began making regular trips to Birmingham to work on her strength, coordination, and balance.

"At first, I couldn't even balance myself enough to do a standing start on my bike," Schuble says. "It didn't take long after I started working out at Lakeshore before I was able to do that."

Schuble has since gone on to win multiple medals as a Paralympic cyclist, including gold in the 500-meter time trial at the 2008 Beijing Games, where she posted a world-record time. Schuble also won two silver medals in Beijing, as well as a silver and a bronze in the 2012 London Games. She competed again in the 2016 Rio Paralympics, finishing fourth in the mixed-team sprint at the age of 40.

"Cycling has really helped me with my coordination and balance, and helped keep my MS in check," Schuble says. She adds that being involved in sports, "really helps people overcome their disabilities. You can function at a higher level, and it also helps with your self-esteem."

Indeed, Underwood says one of the primary benefits of being a Paralympic training site is the ability to showcase what people with disabilities can accomplish. That is why the trophies and championship banners of various sports teams that have trained at Lakeshore are proudly displayed at the fieldhouse, and why the facility has held well-attended viewing parties for past Paralympic Games.

"There is a clear correlation between a person with a disability--whether it's an athlete, a child or an injured vet--and their involvement in a healthy lifestyle that leads to other positives things in their life such as employment, family, and education," Underwood says. "Sports provides a pathway that allows an individual to feel better about themselves, and to become a better person. We've seen how sports can really make a difference in a person's life."

Adams agrees, and he says the work being done with Paralympic athletes at the Lakeshore Foundation is a prime example of how sports have and can continue to help people with disabilities.

"It's important for individuals to understand that there are no barriers, that anything is possible," Adams says. "There's no question that the performance of these athletes serves as an inspiration to anyone with a disability who is looking at what their future may be. Being in the presence of these Paralympians and other elite athletes has a broader social importance that helps everyone. You need only walk the halls of Lakeshore to feel that."

Actually, at times, you can feel it from the moment you walk up to the front desk.

By Cary Estes | Photos by James Acomb

This story appears in Birmingham magazine's January 2017 issue. Subscribe today!