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Strong arms and a competitive spirit drive Shirley Reilly By Sandy Sims Shirley Reilly climbs into her racing chair.Knees bent underneath her and leaningforward, the pretty brunette takes off for aspin around the track at Los Gatos HighSchool as her mother clicks a stopwatch. A few stragglers also run along the track,and a group of boys nearby play flagfootball. Shouts from a soccer game floatover from the next field as Shirley slows onthe curves, then speeds up along thestraight. Shirley has fought an uphill battle all herlife, but she's at the top of the heap now.She's a winner on all counts: she'sarticulate, she's doing well in school andshe does one heckuva fast 800-meter race inher wheelchair. Soon to be a senior at Los Gatos High,Shirley, 17, is fast enough to be one of 45athletes from the United States competing inthe 2002 International Paralympic CommitteeWorld Championships in Athletics going onright now in Lille, France. She's evenqualified for their 26.2-mile marathon. "I love to compete, and I love to travel,"Shirley says. She'll soon get to do both: Thecompetition that runs from July 21 to 28 inLille will be her toughest yet. "It's really exciting," Dora Reilly,Shirley's mother, said on the phone beforethe two left for France on July 15. "I thinkI'm more nervous than Shirley." But Dora's faced many scarier times with herdaughter. Born premature in Anchorage, Alaska,Shirley's lungs had not developed completely,so the hospital hooked her up to aventilator. The pressure was turned up toohigh, and Shirley's tiny lungs ruptured."They also gave her a transfusion thatreplaced all her blood," Dora says. As itturned out, Shirley didn't get enough oxygento her spine and, except for a littlemovement, she lost the use of her legs. Shealso lost some hearing. "We were really lucky," Dora says. "Shirleywas 95 percent dead." She says the doctorsdidn't know if Shirley would be a vegetable.Instead, "she's a survival miracle," Dorasays. And that was just the beginning.
In the cold Alaskan climate, Shirley's legscould not warm up adequately. "They wouldturn blue," Dora says. This also meantShirley got colds and pneumonia easily. "They wanted to chop off my legs," Shirleysays. "But my parents decided to moveinstead." "We knew she could not do well in thatclimate," Dora says. So the Reillys broughttheir four children to San Jose. Shirley, theyoungest, was about 3 years old. When Shirley was around 5, Dora realized herdaughter needed to become more independent."I pampered her and did everything for her,"Dora says. "Then I thought, 'What am I doing?I will ruin her.' " "You can't just sit there and be miserablebecause you have a disabled child or nothingwill happen," Dora says. "I've seen peoplelike that who never snap out of it." Dora made the decision to let her daughterbegin to do things for herself—take a bathby herself, get her own dishes and her ownclothes. Shirley learned to climb up on thecounter and get her own food. "It was tough to watch Shirley struggle,"Dora says. "She was so cute in her tinywheelchair." But the tiny wheelchair proved to becumbersome, so Shirley began using askateboard. She'd perch on it and push withone arm on one side and the other on theother side. "She went fast," Dora says. "Sheeven ran into something and cut her chinonce." Eventually, Shirley grew too big forthe skateboard and the fun wore off. When Shirley hit the first and second grade,she went into a depression. "It was reallyhard," Dora says. Shirley couldn't walk andrun like the other children. There were somany places with little or no wheelchairaccess, and people were nervous about liftingher—afraid to hurt her. She wasn't going toparties or to Great America, Happy Hollow orthe Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk like otherchildren her age. "You never see someone in a wheelchair at thebeach," Dora says, "because of the sand." Shesays amusement rides are still a problembecause Shirley needs to be lifted onto them."Access is always a problem," Dora says. Even Los Gatos High, with its hills, is achallenge for Shirley, who is the onlystudent there in a wheelchair. "It's OK; I'mused to it now," Shirley says. "And peoplehelp me out."
Shirley's father, Kevin, was the one whobrought Shirley out of the depression whenshe was 8. "He was firm with her," Dora says."He told her to stop feeling sorry forherself, that this is the way it is, and wecan't change it." "She snapped right out of it," Dora says. Kevin suggested sports, and the Reillys founda county athletics program, Wheels on Fire,for youngsters with disabilities. "You wouldn't believe Shirley's reaction whenshe saw other children like her inwheelchairs," Dora says. "Her eyes lit up.She was so happy." At Wheels on Fire, Shirley played manysports—archery, basketball, and tabletennis. She swam, raced on a track and more.She also came under the wing of a young manthere named Don Beardon who coached her andeven lent her his own racing wheelchair. "That's when Shirley started pushing hard,"Dora says. But these days Dora is the one coachingShirley. Shirley has her own racing chair now, donatedby Sunrise Medical, a company that sponsorsher. But she has to squeeze into the seat ofthe long, narrow racing chair one hip at atime because she's older and has actuallyoutgrown her chair. "Sunrise will giveShirley another chair that fits later in theyear," Dora says. The Reillys are gratefulfor Sunrise because athletics at Shirley'slevel of competition are very expensive—theequipment, the travel expenses, the time. But getting to this level of competition hasmeant overcoming some tough bumps along theway. About age 11, Shirley began to have seriousback problems because of scoliosis. "She's had tons of back surgery," Dora says.At Shriners Children's Hospital (when it wasin San Francisco), Shirley had rods put inher back and, when those caused problems, hadthem taken out. She's had seven vertebraeremoved and then rods put back in, a long andpainful process that required her to lay flaton her back for weeks. Shirley has spent weeks at Shriners takingoccupational therapy to learn how to maneuveraround better. "You should see her get in andout of the car," Dora says, which brings toDora's mind Shirley's next step as ateen—learning to drive. This involvesgetting a car and fitting it with handcontrols. "I don't know how, but we'll doit," Dora says. The family has felt the strain of Shirley'slifelong struggle. With Dora and Kevinworking long hours at their glass business inMountain View and with all the physicaldifficulties and surgeries and Dora'scommitment to helping her daughter withathletics, it hasn't been easy on the otherthree children in the family. Shirley has twoolder brothers, Kevin and Randy, and an oldersister, Ronnie. "The family is verysupportive, and they take a lot of timehelping me," Shirley says. "She's one of the nicest persons you'llmeet," says 20-year-old Ronnie. "She's strongand fast and never gives up and nevercomplains about practice. She's worked sohard to get to where she is." In fact, Shirley had been working harder thanother athletes like her and didn't even knowit. At the Junior National WheelchairChampionships, Shirley was so far ahead ofthe others that she had no competition. "I might have pushed her too hard," Dorasays. When Dora talked with other trainers,she realized that Shirley was doing a lot incomparison to her peers—twice as muchtraining time as the other youngsters. "Wedidn't know it," Dora says. "It's easy whensomeone is as good as Shirley to keeppushing," she says. "We've calmed down alot."
Shirley says Canadian wheelchair athleteChantal Petitclerk from Quebec is herinspiration. Petitclerk, 30-something, isCanada's most decorated paralympian and aworld record setter for the 800-meter race(two laps around a 400-meter track), which isalso Shirley's best event. Shirley bought the paralympic videotape ofPetitclerk. "That's how I got to know abouther," Shirley says. "Then I found lots ofstuff on the Internet about her." Petitclerk trains four hours a day, six daysa week, weight training and rolling on indoorand outdoor tracks. She's also a televisionpersonality and a motivational speaker. Herwords mean a lot to Shirley. "You're wondering what it takes to succeed?"Petitclerk asks her audiences. "Well, it'snot too complicated. You have to have guts.You have to be ready to take risks. Don't beafraid to fail sometimes. Failure, after all,is what gives value to success." Petitclerk is an advocate for wheelchairathletes. She is fighting to get wheelchairracing included in the internationalOlympics. Shirley has done some advocating herself.Last year she went with Los Gatos High to aCalifornia state track meet in Los Angeles.She was part of a small wheelchair group fromaround the state trying to get themselvesincluded in the meet. "We did a demo game,"Shirley says. "We were trying to getrecognized," she adds, smiling. "And that wascool." Shirley says her main competition right nowis Jessica Galli from New Jersey. Galli is aparalympic silver medalist who is alsocompeting in Lille, France. "It's fun watching the two of them compete,"Dora says. The two girls are so close inspeed that when they race, they go back andforth, and the end of the race is very close."It's exciting, and everyone watches them,"Dora says. Last year at the Junior National WheelchairChampionships in New Jersey, Shirley actuallybroke the 1,500-meter record in her class,T53. (Class T53 includes wheelchair racerswho are unable to use their stomach muscles.)Shirley also beat Galli's time in all theevents. This year at the Junior Nationals inConnecticut, Galli didn't show up, andShirley had no competition. She finishedfirst in everything she competed in,including table tennis (singles and doubles)and the 100-, 200-, 800-, 1,500- and5,000-meter races. Shirley has competed inthe Silicon Valley Marathon twice and many10K events. This year Shirley has focused a little moreon school and not quite as much on racing.She is working to maintain a 3.5 grade pointaverage so she can get into the University ofArizona. "They have good wheelchairbasketball and track teams," Shirley says. "I'm not one of those who is naturallysmart," Shirley says, wriggling in herwheelchair. "I have to work at it." And then there's that out-of-state tuition. "We'll figure that out," Dora says. In the meantime, Shirley will be barrelingaround Los Gatos High School's track in herracing chair, and Dora will be clicking herstopwatch. Shirley already has her eye on the2004 Paralympics in Athens, Greece. |
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