Wheels of Competitive Fire : Kiley Turns Disabling Spine Injury Into Gold-Medal Excellence--and a Desire to Help Others

David Kiley says his shot has never been better and he is as quick as ever.

Still, Kiley, 38, figures it is time to give up basketball. He has suffered one dislocated shoulder, a ruptured muscle in the other and torn ligaments in his wrist over the past 19 years.

“There is a lot of wear and tear on your body from dragging defenders on your shoulders,” the San Dimas resident said.

“I could squeeze out another five years, but I’ve got to depend on my arms for the rest of my life.”

Kiley, a disabled athlete partially paralyzed from the waist down, plans to compete in his fifth Paralympics in Barcelona this summer as a member of the U.S. men’s wheelchair basketball team before closing out his career.

Win or lose in Barcelona, Kiley has already compiled a lengthy list of achievements.

Kiley, a five-time U.S. World Championships team member, has been on three Pan American teams. In 1988, he helped lead the United States to the gold medal in the Paralympics in Seoul.

He has been chosen as the most valuable player of the national wheelchair tournament six times--the most by any player--and selected as an All-American for 14 consecutive years.

In March, the day after Kiley led the Casa Colina Condors, a wheelchair basketball team sponsored by the Casa Colina Rehabilitation Center in Pomona, to its eighth national championship in 12 seasons, he left for the Winter Paralympics in Tignes, France.

Competing on a custom-designed mono-ski, Kiley won gold medals in the super-giant slalom and giant slalom and silver medals in the slalom and downhill races. He is only the second man to be selected to the U.S. team in all four Alpine events.

In 1982, he received a telephone call from President Ronald Reagan after Kiley scaled Guadalupe Peak, the highest mountain in Texas at 8,751 feet. The climb required six days, after a rough back-packing trail. At times, he was forced to crawl across rocks while dragging a wheelchair and gear with a rope clenched in his teeth.

Kiley, who has been ranked among the top four in the world in wheelchair tennis since 1980, also won five gold medals--four in track and field and one in basketball--at the Montreal Paralympics in 1976.

Basketball, though, has always been his first love.

“I still love the game, and I’m scared about going out,” Kiley said.

Kiley faced even more uncertainty after losing use of his lower limbs as the result of a spinal injury 19 years ago.

A 6-foot-2 point guard, he led Orange County in assists during his junior season in 1970 at Mater Dei High in Santa Ana and was an All-Angelus League selection as a junior and a senior.

He enrolled at Orange Coast College the next school year, but dropped out during his freshman year.

“I always loved sports more than I did school . . . it had been my motivation to get through,” Kiley said.

Kiley and several friends went to Big Bear to ride inner tubes in the snow in January of 1973. Kiley was under the influence of alcohol when he lost control while racing down a steep hill and crashed into a tree backward at high speed.

The impact crushed his spine. Kiley was left with slight movement in his legs; he can walk with crutches and braces, but not enough to stand on his own. He kept up hope for recovery during his four months of hospitalization, but the extent of his injury became evident when he started rehabilitation. “You always keep up faith and work at all angles to get yourself out of the mess you’re in,” Kiley said. “But seeing the large numbers of others who weren’t walking, reality hit that it wasn’t going to happen. I felt like I was given the death penalty, and at that time I wanted it.”

One day, Kiley saw patients in wheelchairs playing basketball in the courtyard. He began shooting baskets by himself and played his first game while still wearing a body jacket, a device used to stabilize his spine.

“It turned a negative experience into a life that I can’t say enough about,” Kiley said. “I was literally amazed at their skill. They were shooting 20-foot jump shots and spinning their chairs on a dime. It completely shattered my stereotype.”

The activity also gave him the incentive to return to school to become a recreation therapist.

“I kept asking myself what I was going to do,” Kiley said. “I wasn’t good in academics and I didn’t have any trades. I said, ‘Boy, this is something I can make a career out of and it’s sports related.’ ”

It is a decision that Kiley has not regretted.

He has been the director of wheelchair sports and recreation at Casa Colina for 12 years. The nonprofit program funded through donations provides training and coaching for disabled children and adults. Activities include archery, football, quad-rugby, horseback riding, racquetball and swimming.

Kiley said being disabled makes it easier for patients to relate to him, but his hardest task is making the transition easier for the newly disabled.

“It’s more difficult dealing with an individual looking how everything used to be,” Kiley said. “Whatever I do transcends to the newly injured and setting their goals right away. I try to keep them so busy that they don’t have time to think of themselves as being a victim.”

Although Kiley still plans to compete in tennis and skiing after retiring from basketball, he is looking forward to devoting more time to his wife, Sandy, and children Justin, 12, and Danielle, 7--children whom Kiley was told by physicians he would never be able to conceive.

Kiley took a three-month leave from work to prepare for the Winter Paralympics. He had to raise nearly $20,000 to help cover travel and equipment costs.

“It’s time to point my nose back home and watch my kids grow up,” Kiley said.

His children might be growing up a little faster than Kiley would like. It’s become evident when he plays tennis with Justin. “I can’t beat him anymore,” Kiley said, laughing. “I might have to slow down with tennis, too.”

Whatever Kiley chooses to do, Sandy remains supportive of his active lifestyle.

“The kids and I are so proud of him,” she said. “We’re also happy that he’ll be able to spend more time home now. I just hope he doesn’t discover another competitive sport to fall in love with, like body surfing or sky diving.”