After a trampoline accident left him unable to walk, Steve Baxter was determined to remain active despite being in a wheelchair.
Before the accident, Baxter served as a rescue swimmer in the Navy. He attended Boise State, where he started the Boise State Adaptive Athletics program (BSAA), allowing students with physical disabilities to play sports such as basketball, tennis or track and field.
As students, Steven Baxter and friends Kevin Falk and Randy Corbett launched BSAA in response to the lack of activities for people with disabilities on campus in the fall of 2023.
After leaving the military, Baxter joined several sports teams to remain active, primarily wheelchair tennis. Falk, who lost his legs in a motorcycle accident years prior, was in a similar situation, trying to stay active through wheelchair tennis.
While traveling for tennis tournaments, Baxter and Falk visited other universities with structured programs for students with disabilities, such as Alabama State and Arizona State. Seeing the opportunities these programs offered students inspired them to form their own.
Baxter’s tennis team, under the BSAA, competed in the Collegiate Wheelchair National Championships in Orlando, Florida. The event, scheduled to take place in spring 2020, was cancelled due to the pandemic. However, this setback didn’t discourage Baxter and Falk from trying again.
“The next year that they were going to have the national championships, we both signed up for just one class so we could say yes,” Baxter said.
Baxter assembled a new team in May of 2022, consisting of himself, Falk, Tommy Schroeder and fellow veteran Randy Corbett. They achieved their goal of making it to the tournament. There, they proceeded to win each match-up leading to the semifinals.
“I was just blown away looking up at the screen, seeing us,” Falk said. “All these major schools that have great programs — and we were winning.”
The team was set to play in the National Men’s Tennis Collegiate event the following month, where they would be integrated with able-bodied tennis players. However, Falk stated the NCAA had concerns about Falk not being a full-time student and being older than most traditional student-athletes.
“It actually blew up and turned into a big legal battle within the NCAA,” Baxter said. “They thought it might not look right to the NCAA… guys that are in our 30s and 40s, non-traditional students, essentially coming back to school.”
Baxter and Falk felt the best thing to do was withdraw from the tournament, even if it meant depriving them of being one of the top two teams in the country.
Despite their frustration, Baxter and Falk remained eager to provide athletes who are disabled with community, competition and opportunities such as sports scholarships. Baxter dreamed of helping athletes with disabilities “graduate from being intermediate players to elite players”.
“I worked really hard to try and make Team USA for years, and I really struggled with that… there’s just no help in the area for me,” Baxter said. He noted he lacked a proper strength training and sports psychology coach, a need he would hope to fill for other athletes with disabilities.
“I never thought I’d get the opportunity to compete in an organized sports team due to being disabled,” said Elijah Elsberry, a member of BSAA’s wheelchair basketball team.
Wheelchair basketball at Boise State gained momentum with its involvement in intramurals this semester. Falk has been managing wheelchair basketball for 12 years and noted the team has had trouble getting enough players to compete in tournaments.
“I totally enjoy going there and playing as much as I can,” said Teo Contreras, a Boise resident who attends the wheelchair basketball practices. “Now that I’m working from home, it’s pretty much the only thing that keeps me active.”
They hold practices on Tuesday nights, where they encourage anybody to join in. The Gem State Falcons, a professional team co-founded by Shroeder, will occasionally take time from taking part in the National Wheelchair Basketball Association to participate in Falk’s Tuesday night practices.
“It was very difficult at first, because not a lot of people know a bunch about Adaptive Athletics,” Baxter said of starting the program.
Over three years later, Baxter and Falk remain focused on spreading awareness about the program. Baxter hopes more schools will develop similar programs so adaptive athletes can compete against each other in official competitions instead of only club sports.
BCAA moved under the umbrella of the Kinesiology Department in 2023, which Baxter stated has “really helped us expand our connections within the university”. Baxter also credited Linda Ramsdell, the department chair, who reportedly spread word of BSAA to her coworkers, leading to the acquisition.
BSAA hosted an Adaptive Rock Climbing Clinic on Friday, Sept. 19, to highlight the recent renovations making the Campus Recreation Center’s climbing gym more accessible to climbers with disabilities. Baxter was invited to collaborate on the event alongside Julia Pierce, an adaptive climbing specialist working on her master’s degree at Boise State.
Baxter helped Pierce network with other organizations, like the National Ability Center and the Challenged Athletes Foundation. In 2020, the foundation originally donated adaptive climbing gear such as specialized harnesses and prosthetics.
In addition to running BSAA, Baxter is working towards a master’s degree in Economics. He hopes to add more adaptive sports to the program in the future, such as skiing and swimming.
“[We are trying to] give those people that are really motivated and really competitive and athletic a chance to really have that outlet, to go out there and compete and win,” Baxter said.
