Chicago (RIC), the largest freestanding rehabilitation center in the country. Many RIC athletes won Paralympic medals during his tenure. Currently he is director of sports and community programs for BlazeSports America, a legacy program from the 1996 Paralympics, facilitating programming for people with disabilities. Jones now is also U.S. Paralympic Military Program coordinator and had the honor of coaching a Navy veteran blinded in Iraq. “He was a swimmer at the Naval Academy, and wanted to know if he still had the stuff to compete. We trained him for three months and he qualified for the Paralympic Games in his first blind swim meet. Pretty cool,” he says.
Deb Accorsi ’82
Deb Accorsi majored in therapeutic recre- ation and volunteered for cerebral palsy programs while she attended Springfield College. She then took a position with United Cerebral Palsy in sports integration, attended many national games, and ran events, including the National Junior Disability Championships at Connecticut College in 2003 for cerebral palsy, amputees, visually impaired/blind, and many other differently- abled athletes. Accorsi was at the 1988 Paralympic Games in Seoul and 1992 Games in Barcelona as a team leader. “I made friends for a lifetime and have many great memories of my time volunteering. But, one moment stands out; when they filled the seats in Barcelona with 70,000, people including the King of Spain, and my 4x100 ambulatory relay cerebral palsy team won a gold medal. That was an amazing experience and something I won’t forget.”
Justin Zook ’08
Justin Zook was born prematurely and with some abnormalities including only one half of his right foot. He started swimming for physical therapy at age six, and got involved with Paralympics when he was 10. He competed in the World Championships in 1998 and again in 2002, when he won two bronze medals in the S10 400 freestyle, and S10 100 backstroke. His first Paralympic games were in Athens in 2004, where he took medals in the 50 freestyle (bronze) and 100 backstroke (gold). In 2008, in Beijing, he
TRIANGLE 1 Vol. 83, No. 3
“I AM A BLESSED MAN AND GRATEFUL TO SPRINGFIELD COLLEGE. LOTS OF PEOPLE HELPED ME—INCLUDING BOB BERGQUIST, MY MENTOR AND FRIEND WHOM I LOVE VERY MUCH. SO MUCH OF WHAT I‘VE DONE IN MY LIFE IS BECAUSE OF HIM. HE GAVE ME CONFIDENCE TO PURSUE MY DREAMS,” SAYS SAL FICARA.
won a gold medal in the S10 100 backstroke. “I attended Springfield College for its reputable sports management program and the competitiveness of the swim team. It was difficult for me to find a college that offered a high-level Division III program and a sports management major. After a few classes, I immediately noticed a different attitude toward disabled sports from one of my professors, Bob Accorsi. I really connected with him because of his work with Paralympics and other disabled sports organizations. I used what I learned at Springfield College to earn my MBA in sport business at Florida Atlantic University and now work with the United States Olympic Committee. Being part of the Paralympic movement allows me to take on something I love—obstacles.” At this writing, Zook was training for his third Paralympic games in London. (See page 3.)
Salvin Ficara ’84
Sal Ficara competed on the first team that Bob Bergquist and Grant Peacock brought to the International Cerebral Palsy Games. He later earned a degree at Springfield College majoring in physical education. He partici- pated in the Paralympic Games in 1980, 1984, and 1992, winning a silver medal in 1984 for cross country. Ficara worked with Bergquist in the adaptive program and was an assistant director and then program director at the U.S. Sports & Fitness Center for the Disabled at Springfield College. He is now a case manager for the State of Connecticut Department of Developmental Services working with individuals with autism. Ficara tells Triangle, “I always got a lot of support from Springfield College. I was allowed to run track, thanks to Coach Ken
Klatka. My teammates made it a great experi- ence. I am a blessed man and grateful to Springfield College. Lots of people helped me—including Bob Bergquist, my mentor and friend whom I love very much. So much of what I‘ve done in my life is because of him. He gave me confidence to pursue my dreams.”
Robert Accorsi G’80
Bob Accorsi’s involvement with the Paralympics goes back to 1984 when he was a cycling and power lifting national coach for the International Games for the Disabled held in Long Island (the last year the Paralympics were not held at the same venue as the Olympic Games—that year in Los Angeles). In Seoul in 1988, the first year games were held under the Paralympic banner, he was one of three team leaders overseeing athletes and staff. In Barcelona in 1992, he was a cycling technical delegate, running all the cycling events with two colleagues. Most recently, in 2005, Accorsi was an operations manager helping to run the World Champ - ion ships for Athletes with Cerebral Palsy.
David Grevemberg ’95
David Grevemberg wrestled and studied sports management at Springfield College and, in 1995, did an internship with the USOC. He then worked in the 1996 Atlanta Games with the U.S. Paralympic team. Beginning in 1996, Grevemberg was an administrator at seven summer and winter Paralympic games while working for the IOC, and was one of the initial staff helping set up International Paralympic Committee (IPC) headquarters in Bonn, Germany, in 1999. He left in 2009 as IPC executive director of sport and international federation relations to go to Glasgow, Scotland, and take the position of CEO of the Commonwealth Games 2014.1
“THE CORE VALUES OF HUMANICS AT SPRINGFIELD COLLEGE HAVE BECOME A COMPONENT OF OUR PERSONHOOD, AND MANDATE THAT WE ARE CALLED TO ACTION.”
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