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Local Sports

Local sports in the Panhandle are not just a game, they are a lifestyle. Our community eats, sleeps and breathes cheering on our local athletes.
News13 is On Your “Sidelines” bringing you more than the score.
News13’s Stephen Gunter is committed to giving you stories of the Panhandle’s top athletes, intriguing match-ups and unusual sports you may not even know exist.
sgunter@wmbb.com

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Austin Plays His Heart Out!

PANAMA CITY BEACH - Ninth-grader Austin Steele is in Arnold High School’s marching band.  He fell in love with the clarinet in the sixth grade while at Surfside Middle School.

He’s just a regualr high school kid.  If you think otherwise… Austin will have something to say about that!

“It’s not really holding me down.  I don’t even think about it.  I’m so used to it.”

This is Austin’s philosophy and he wants people to know it.  He isn’t fazed by what many of us would consider an insurmountable obstacle.

Austin was born with Spina Bifida.  He’s missing the two lowest vertbrae in his spine causing paralysis in his legs.  The result: Austin is confined to a wheelchair.

“H’s just a great guy, a regular kid,” Arnold band director Gary Nichols said.  “He happens to have something he has to deal with every day.”

And yes!  Austin is in the marching band.  This is no sit-still-in-the-wheelchair-while-the-band-marches-around-you-routine.  Austin and his good friend Eugene Tucker are right in the middle of it; in formation, with the wheelchair.

“Now they see that I can do it,” Austin said.  “They’re like Whoa!  I’ve shocked a lot of people.”

His friend, Eugene, is an ROTC student earning community service hours for his helpful.  But he admits, sometimes the wheelchair is not so easy to maneuver on the playing field.

“Whenever they would speed up or slow down or whatever,” Tucker said.  “I would hit them in the back of the knee or something on accident.”

That brings Austin to his next point.

“I’ve got six and a half inches of duct tape on the wheels.  I’ve blown about six bearings.  It’s six years old and need a new one.”

His wheelchair needs some help.  But, Austin is captivating, funny and not the least bit sensitive to his shortcomings.

“I don’t know if he would say being in a wheelchair has made him better, stronger, more inspirational or not,” Nichols said.  “He’s just who he is and it wouldn’t matter if he was walking around like everyone else.  He’s still doing his best that’s for sure.  That’s just his character and personality.”

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