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The news site of Santa Barbara City College.

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The news site of Santa Barbara City College.

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Soccer player powers through challenges

Soccer+player+powers+through+challenges

Kyle Colton can’t run, jump, kick or dunk.

Instead, he rolls his wheelchair onto the court and performs figure eights to warm up his motor memory. He whips his chair from side to side, practicing the “kick.”  After about 15 minutes, he moves to a corner of the gym to clear his mind.

His goal: To dominate the court, no matter what life throws his way.

Colton, a 19-year-old City College student, plays power soccer. The game involves athletes in special wheelchairs playing a modified form of soccer. Colton has played the game since he was 3 when his mother brought him to wheelchair-sports camp.

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“Every day I get really motivated and pumped and I think about what if I had legs,” Colton said. “If had legs, I could and would be doing so many things. I’ve always wanted to play football and be a quarterback or defensive end.”

Colton was born with cerebral palsy. The condition is the result of a brain injury at birth, caused by a lack of oxygen.  It affects some motor functions and makes it difficult to control voluntary muscles, so Colton uses a wheelchair.

Like many athletes, Colton says that he is driven by the doubters.

“If someone says I can’t do it, I have to prove them wrong,” he said. “You have to work around it. You have to figure out a way to persevere and get better no matter what life throws your way.”

Power soccer is played on a regulation-sized basketball court with goals at each end. Four players on each team jerk their wheelchairs around to “kick” the 13-inch diameter ball.

“It gets heated and competitive out there,” Colton said. “Like any competitive sport, teams don’t like to lose.”

Colton’s late mother, Charlotte Colton, introduced him to sports through a wheelchair-camp at UCSB.

There, he met Bill Balles, who was to become his best friend, mentor and teammate. Balles, who suffered a spinal chord injury, was working as a camp counselor.

“We have a summer camp out at UCSB, and [Charlotte] brought this little runt in on a wheelchair and said, ‘I want my son to learn sports,’” said Balles, now executive vice president on the board of the United States Power Soccer Association.

At camp, Colton excelled in quad rugby, wheelchair tennis, racquetball, basketball and swimming. But he but found his calling on the soccer court—and a bond developed between mentor and protégé.

“He’s my mentor for my life and my sport,” Colton said. “We feed off of each other. We know each other so well we don’t even have to talk we just know what each of us is going to do on the court.”

In 2006, life dealt Colton a yet another blow when his mother was shot to death when a gunman murdered eight people at the Goleta Post Office.  Colton’s chair is adorned with the No. 44 in honor of his mother’s age when she died. Balles sports the No. 88 to show his respects as double Colton’s number.

“Losing his mother really made Kyle grow up really quickly,” Balles said. “His mother was his world up until 12. She cared for him, gave him everything she could and pushed him to do just about anything.

“I know his mother would be very proud of what he is doing now.”

Colton took a year off of sports when his mom died, but returned with a renewed vigor and committed himself to power soccer. He joined Balles to play for the Rollin’ Gauchos, a power soccer team based out of UCSB.

The team was funded through private donations sponsored by United Cerebral Palsy Work, Inc.

Within three years, when Colton was studying at Dos Pueblos high school, the Rollin’ Gauchos were one of the top 8 teams in the Premier Cup Conference, competing nationwide against the best 65 teams of the most competitive wheelchair athletes in the country.

Colton, a mechanical engineering major, dreams of doing more for the sport that has done so much for him. He hopes to become a civil engineer like his father, Jim Colton, and eventually design a sports wheelchair.

“Kyle is very intelligent with math and science,” said Balles, who doubles as their team mechanic.  “With engineering, I think he will do amazing things for the power wheelchair community. “

Balles is convinced that Kyle is good enough to try-out for Team USA, which won the first two World Cups, held in Tokyo and Paris, respectively, and is looking to capture its third title in 2015.

But, Balles added, Colton is limited by his modified Quickie P200 chair.

“Right now [Kyle] is excelling to the optimal level he can with the equipment he has,” he said. “Getting him that next step-up in equipment is going to be huge. It’s really going to make a difference in trying out for Team USA.”

Recently, the league designed a new StrikeForce chair, but Colton can’t afford the $7,950 price tag.

In July, Colton and Balles met more adversity when their team was dissolved after United Cerebral Palsy Work, Inc. cut their $15,000 a year funding.

“The funding paid for travel, hotels, gym rentals, entrance and liability fees,” Balles said. “I asked [Colton] whether he wanted to keep playing or not, and he said he wanted to.”

Colton and Balles transferred to a team based out of Glendale Community College, called the Southern California Vaqueros.

“Each player has to raise $3,500 just to compete, and when you add chair maintenance, gas money to and from Glendale. It adds up quickly,” Balles said.

Glendale Community College donates the gym for practice and play, but gas in Balles’ specialized van adds up to $300 a month.

Rosabeth Dorfhuber, a Santa Barbara City College yoga instructor, has witnessed Colton’s work ethic firsthand in the Life Fitness Center. She heard about his funding situation and sprung to action. Dorfhuber rallied the Yoga Club to Colton’s cause and set up two fundraisers.

“[Colton] is a competitive athlete, and he’s training like one,” Dorfhuber said. “Just because he’s in a wheelchair does not mean he’s not a competitive athlete.

“I think it’s important to show that he has support around him. If he didn’t have the opportunity to play a sport, I don’t think he would be happy or fulfilled. It’s important that he has that outlet.”

Through fundraisers, the Yoga Club raised $245.85 to help Colton continue to compete. Colton plans to transfer to UCSB in the fall of 2015. If you are interested in making a donation, they  should be made to Colton’s GoFundMe account.

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