by Kristin Proulx Jarvis
Eban Boucher high-fives Whitney O'Leary
When former women’s tennis team captain Whitney O’Leary ’06 recalls her last season on the Panther team, she won’t think only of winning matches against colleges like Colby-Sawyer, Bridgewater State and the University of Massachusetts, or her team’s runner-up finish in the Little East Conference. She will also remember the tennis team’s work with 15-year-old aspiring tennis player Eban Boucher.
Boucher, a student at Plymouth Regional High School, has used a wheelchair since an automobile accident at age four left him unable to walk. Barbara Rawlsky-Willett, the women’s tennis coach, knew him from Russell Elementary School, where she teaches physical education. Last fall, Rawlsky-Willett asked Boucher if he’d like to learn to play tennis. In October, he began meeting with tennis team members to work on his serves and swings.
“(Working with Eban) was one of the most rewarding things I have ever done in my life,” O’Leary said. “When the idea of giving Eban private lessons with the team came around, I thought it was a great idea. I have been playing tennis since I was about seven, and I would never want a disability to interfere with someone’s chance to play this wonderful sport.”
Boucher used a special wheelchair during his tennis lessons, one that allows increased mobility, quick turns and faster moves on the court. Before he came to his first lesson, Rawlsky-Willett had her players each spend time sitting and moving around the court in the chair, so they would understand what kinds of maneuvers and movements were possible.
“He proved not only to us, but to himself, that he can play tennis,” said O’Leary.
Boucher enjoyed his lessons just as much as the team did. “There were really cool girls on the team, really accepting. We had a lot of fun.”
After the tennis season ended, the team presented Boucher with some tennis equipment, including a racket, so that he could keep practicing. But the relationship between he and the tennis team did not end there.
At Russell Elementary, Rawlsky- Willett had been working on raising money to buy Boucher a handcycle, a three-wheeled cycle that allows riders with limited mobility to steer and power the bike using the handlebars. Remembering the close bond her team had formed with Boucher, the coach asked her players if they would be willing to help find donations for the rest of the $2,000 needed to purchase the bike.
Eban Boucher and teammates.
O’Leary and other teammates took up the challenge, going door to door, asking for donations from downtown restaurants and stores. They urged their friends, classmates and even their families at home to pledge a few dollars. Pretty soon, the team—and other fundraising efforts at Russell Elementary School and Plymouth Regional High School—had gathered enough money to buy the handcycle. Scott Pellett, founder of Bike-on.com, helped Rawlsky-Willett choose an appropriate cycle for Boucher, and gave her a significant discount on the purchase. In December, O’Leary, Rawlsky-Willett and tennis team member Erica Huckins presented the cycle to Boucher and his family as an early Christmas present.
“Seeing the look of surprise and delight on his face once he received the bike is one picture that will never be erased from my memory,” said O’Leary.
