Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Disability doesn't keep coach from coaching

Coach Larry Ricker


From The Greeneville, Tenn., Sun:


For more than twenty years, Coach Larry Ricker has been spending a portion of his summers teaching, encouraging, and instilling the game of basketball into young Greene County athletes. The exception was last year when the coach was continuing to recover from a tragic accident that nearly cost him his life.

Earlier this month, however, Coach Ricker was back on the basketball court holding camp, traveling quickly across the gym floor in a motorized wheelchair, and continuing to share his knowledge and love for a game that he cultivated through decades of coaching.

It has been two years now that one of the most successful coaches in Greene County girls basketball history suffered the spinal injury that forever changed his life. He lost a son – and he was left with a devastating, near-fatal injury.