Fueled by adversity

Student inspires other disabled veterans to play sports

After an Army jump-school exercise went very wrong, Centra “CeCe” Mazyck found herself paralyzed from the waist down. Doctors told her family she would never walk again.

Mazyck took that as a personal challenge. Six years later, she is a senior at Carolina and can walk with assistance. She plays basketball, likes to snow ski, and trains three days a week in the gym. She hopes to compete in javelin and shot put events on the U.S. Paralympic Track and Field Team.

She also wants to become a counselor, possibly in a Veterans Administration hospital, and work with newly injured soldiers.

“Sports can play a major role in recovery. I know it did for me—I’m stronger physically and have better self esteem,” said Mazyck, a sociology major with a minor in women’s studies who will graduate in May 2010. “Just after I got injured, I was very self-conscious and didn’t want anyone to see me.

“Right now, in addition to my studies and taking care of my seven-year-old son, I travel around the country to various military training and sports camps, introducing different sports for disabled veterans, particularly women,” said Mazyck, who is retired from the Army as a sergeant first class. “I want to show other disabled females that they can do anything they put their minds to. It’s so sad when I see how few disabled females are involved in sports. I make it a point to talk to every female in a wheelchair, to get to know them, and to make suggestions about how they can get into sports.”

Earlier this year, at a winter sports clinic at the National Veterans Wheelchair Games held in Spokane, Wash., Mazyck received a plea for help.

“A nurse asked me to talk with a woman who had been paralyzed for about a year,” she said. “She was feeling very negative about her injury and didn’t want to get involved in any activities. I called her, and we’ve kept in touch regularly, usually with daily text messages. She is now preparing to compete in the Miss Wheelchair Virginia pageant.”

In April, Mazyck was recognized for her own outstanding sportsmanship. After participating in the National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic, Mazyck, standing at the podium, received the prestigious Freedom Award.