Photograph by Dai Sugano

Determinator: Sharon Clark has continued to play to win, even after a devastating 1986 car accident.

Life has become a whirlwind tour for U.S. wheelchair tennis champ

Campbell teacher Sharon Clark prepares to take on the world of tennis-on-wheels

By Suzanne Barnecut

Even though she's been on the go almost continually for a month--she recently returned from the Japan Open tournament and is on her way to Reno--Sharon Clark's home is spotlessly clean. There's no luggage shoved into corners or extra tennis balls rolling across the hardwood floors. A quick glance around her cozy living room reveals candles lining the mantlepiece, a rocking chair snug between two windows and Japanese art--bought at last year's Japan Open--hanging above a plush navy-blue couch.

Clark, a substitute teacher who works in the Campbell Union School District, is the United States' reigning Wheelchair Tennis champion. She wheels easily about her house, then hoists herself onto the couch to explain how her love affair with tennis began by accident in 1986.

Clark grew up playing soccer and running track, but in March of her senior year of high school, a ski trip with friends changed the course of her life. The car slid on a patch of ice and overturned, leaving Clark with a broken back. She was 17 years old.

During a three-month stay in the hospital, Clark received tutoring in order to graduate from high school on time. She also began hitting tennis balls against an outside wall with her therapist.

"When I first started, I was really bad at it," Clark confesses. "It was hard to push my chair around the court." Nevertheless, she kept at tennis, eventually beginning to play in tournaments during her last two years at Claremont McKenna college.

Today, at 31, Clark is ranked number five worldwide of the approximately 10,000 people who play wheelchair tennis. She plays 15 tournaments every year, and has traveled to Australia, New Zealand, Holland, Thailand, Belgium, France, England and Spain to play. This May was the third time tennis brought her to Japan, and her second attendance at the annual tournament held in Iizuka.

"It's a really neat tour because it's a small town so people get excited about it and throw a festival with food, dancing and drums. It's a big party," Clark says. The trip also included a visit to a local elementary school where she talked about the sport of tennis and played a game for the children. "The kids were so awesome. They sang us songs and made us little fans."

It was last year at the World Team Cup held in the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona that Clark claimed the number one place among U.S. women, a title it took until the end of our interview for Clark to modestly mention. However, while she cloaks her pride, Clark's ambition is clear.

"I love tennis because you have to use your mind," she says. "It's a thinking game and there's always a way to improve. After 10 years, there's still so much potential and I feel like I could be a better player. I don't want to stop until I am." With an extra dose of conviction she adds, "I enjoy playing, but I really hate losing. I would love to be number one in the world. I feel like it's achievable."

Clark will have her chance soon. In two weeks she flies off to the Dutch and British Open and then to this year's World Team Cup, held at Flushing Meadows in New York. Clark shares how eager she is for the U.S. women to beat the second-place rank they earned last year.

"I'm excited about that!" she says. "I think we have a chance to win."

It is with this generous spirit that Clark also lives the other, non-tennis, half of her life. Two years ago Clark followed a job and her coach from Southern California to San Jose. She shares her quaint house with her roommate Liz, who is also an athlete.

When home, Clark works as a substitute teacher for the Campbell School District and as a recreation leader for the City of San Jose. She accompanies blind people on outings, and on Saturdays, tries hard to coax the junior wheelchair student athletes away from other sports for a game of tennis. She practices five days a week--sometimes with her personal coach, Thor Holt, and other times with Sean Burns from Santa Clara University, or her team, which boasts a roster of 30 players ranging in skill from beginner to Clark.

She is quick to sing praises for the team's volunteer coach, Bill Jacobson, as well as her sponsors: Adidas, Prince and Invacare.

With a wheelchair Clark realizes, "You can still do pretty much anything you want. It's just takes a lot longer. I have to learn patience."

But Clark is patient as I reveal my ignorance of tennis. I think of the first phrase that comes to mind: love.

"It means zero--when there are no points," she laughs. "It sounds so friendly, but it's not."

Nor is it likely to be something she'll need to worry about.

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