113. Going Where You’re Valued with Coach and Paralympian Stephanie Wheeler

Going Where You’re Valued with Coach and Paralympian Stephanie Wheeler

Introducing Stephanie Wheeler

Today I’m talking to University of Illinois women’s wheelchair basketball head coach and Paralympian Stephanie Wheeler about going where you’re valued.

Her Career Journey

Stephanie played wheelchair basketball at the University of Illinois, where she majored in kinesiology while winning three national championships. She went on to earn her masters in human performance at the University of Alabama before returning to Illinois to begin her PhD in cultural kinesiology. Though this time, she continued training and won two gold medals at the 2004 and 2008 Paralympics. Now the head coach of her college program, she’s continuing to work towards her doctoral degree. Stephanie has served as the head coach for US women’s senior national team and the U25 women’s national team.

Going Where You’re Valued

Despite all of her success, Stephanie has still faced discrimination and is one of the few women head coaches, and one of the very few head coaches with a disability, in a sports world that continues to be dominated by men. After leading Team USA to a gold medal at the Rio Paralympics as the head coach, Stephanie decided to focus all her energy on coaching her team at Illinois, where she could live out her values in an environment that supported her as a whole human being. Between her partner, her network, and a supportive administration, Stephanie is able to create an environment for her student-athletes to be their full selves.

Inside this episode:

    • Stephanie didn’t meet another disabled woman athlete until she was a teenager. She talks about how everyone, both disabled and non-disabled, benefits from representation and can reconsider what it means to be in leadership roles.
    • Wheelchair basketball gave her a way to redefine what it meant to be an athlete and be athletic. Stephanie is helping to redefine sporting spaces as a place where a person’s unique characteristics are celebrated. 
    • Stephanie has continued to work on her PhD at Illinois while coaching where she does auto-ethnographic research, describing her experiences and how she’s pushed back throughout her life. Her academic journey has given her a voice and a way to share her stories while also greatly influencing her coaching style.
    • As one of the only disabled woman head coaches, Stephanie’s uniqueness means that her support network needs to stretch beyond the world of sports. They remind her to step outside the world of sports and remember that there is more than just wins and losses.
    • While she used to think that she’d coach for the rest of her career, Stephanie is open to the possibility that, in the future, the best way to live out her values might take her off the court.
    • Stephanie describes her experiences navigating the white, heterosexual, and male-dominated world of the governing bodies controlling sports and the challenges she faced when it appeared she hadn’t followed the traditional pathway to a head coaching position.
    • Stephanie learned that you can’t lead if you’re following someone else’s path. She’s learned to celebrate the unique aspects of herself.

Resources

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