The return of the Spokes Stars column
For almost 50 years, SPORTS ’N SPOKES (S’NS) has been bringing you interesting and informative articles about anything and everything involving adaptive sports and recreation.
Created by the late Cliff Crase and his wife, Nancy, in 1975 because Cliff had too much copy for his monthly sports column in PN magazine, S’NS is the nation’s premier magazine for wheelchair sports and recreation. It’s been a good experience for me to help bring you so many great stories, especially when it comes to the people. We want to continue this tradition Cliff and Nancy started, but we need to ask for a bit of your help.
The dreaded novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic forced us to alter much of our regularly planned content because, for a time, there wasn’t that much taking place. The pandemic is still ongoing, but most of the sports world has returned to some sense of normalcy, and we’re hoping to do that with S’NS.
One of the casualties from all of the changes we had to make was the elimination of the Spokes Stars department. Last seen in the July 2020 issue, Spokes Stars was created to tell you about the people making their mark, big and small, at all levels of sports.
It was forced out of the pages of S’NS because the pandemic wreaked so much havoc on the sports world. It’s pretty hard to tell you about athletes doing amazing things when the athletes aren’t able to compete. So, it was put on hiatus until things opened up again.
Things are open, sports are plentiful and athletes are once again competing. So, what we would like is help from you to tell us about some of the impressive accomplishments athletes are making. However, don’t think someone has to be a winning a Paralympic medal, leading a team to a national title or setting a world record to be a Spokes Star.
Those types of achievements are wonderful, and they always have a place in the pages of S’NS, but Spokes Stars is meant to be more than those type of high-profile deeds. This department should also be about helping to celebrate the feats that don’t necessarily get the hype and attention they deserve.
We want to highlight the special moments and key achievements of athletes and coaches at every level. The section is meant to celebrate kids, teens, adults, amateurs, pros, the weekend warriors and teams during the regular season, as well as the postseason.
We’re talking about the stuff that’ll make the reader say, “Wow, great job!” Whether it’s hitting for the cycle in wheelchair softball, nailing the game-winning shot at a wheelchair basketball tournament, rolling a 300 in bowling, recording a coaching milestone or some other impressive athletic endeavor — help us let everyone know about it.
The world of recreation is included in this, too. Not every great athletic success has to involve a traditional sport being played in an organized setting or league. How about someone who swam a great distance, climbed a mountain or hauled in a record catch at the lake? We want to celebrate those things, too.
When it comes to nominating someone to be a Spokes Star, make sure to give us as much detail as possible about the person’s athletic achievement. When and where did this take place? Was it a tournament? How old is he or she? Where does he or she live, etc.?
We also need a high-quality color photo of the person, preferably from their accomplishment, and contact information in case we have any questions.
Right now, we have space for three Spokes Stars in each issue. But who’s to say we can’t add more as needed or even include some of them on our website?
Tell us who should be honored in Spokes Stars by emailing us the details and a photo at john@pvamag.com.