Evan Trad

Steve Serio’s story is really remarkable. When he was 11 months old, Serio was diagnosed with a benign spinal tumor that he’d had since birth. The tumor became infected and inflamed, crushing his spinal cord. This resulted in paralysis in Serio’s lower extremities. Living with a disability is all Serio knows, and throughout his entire childhood, he worked hard to fit into the able-bodied world. He went to a public school, had non-disabled friends, and played sports with others without disabilities to the best of his ability. 

At the age of about 14, Serio discovered wheelchair basketball. This is where he found a game that allowed him to embrace both his disability and who he truly was, and it allowed him to surround himself with people similar to him, allowing him to stop trying to fit into a world not built for him. Serio began playing on a youth team in Long Island, The Long Island Lightning. Once he embraced the sport, he decided to get everything out of it that he possibly could. In fact, he began to be recruited at the University level early. 

Serio became a leader very early in his life, long before ever becoming a member of Team USA. “It takes a village to get to this level [of paralympian],” says Serio, and he has had a village of mentors along every step in his journey. His most influential mentor is his father. He would never say no to any crazy idea that Serio had, but he would also never let him quit. He also taught Serio the importance of leadership. This was especially true during one game when Serio was playing in two different leagues, one with children his age, and one adult league. Both had games that day simultaneously, so Serio needed to decide which game to play. He, of course, chose the fast-paced adult game. His father reminded him of how the youth team counted on him to lead the team. Serio, upset and frustrated at the moment, forfeited his opportunity to play with the adults, and instead played in the youth game that day.

Serio decided to leave New York to attend the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign and become part of the history and legacy of adaptive sports in the United States. Wheelchair basketball was started as a sport at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. With the support of Coach Mike Frogley, who was very well known in the sport, Serio was given the opportunity to leave his legacy in the sport. Frogley taught Serio how to excel as a student-athlete, and also taught him the importance of being a leader in the community. Frogley taught him never to be satisfied and to always push himself because the adaptive sports and paralympic community deserve that level of play. Frogley also taught Serio that the impact that adaptive sports could have on people, especially kids with disabilities, is arguably greater than the impact sports have on the non-disabled community. Through Frogley, Serio began to work on spreading the awareness and the impact these adaptive sports have. 

Serio’s third mentor who had a significant impact on his journey in becoming a leader was the first captain Serio played with on Team USA, Paul Schulte, who, according to Serio, “is kind of like Steph [Curry] before Steph became popular.” Schulte was an iconic player in the United States in wheelchair basketball, but more importantly, he is an idol to many, including Serio, because of his leadership. Schulte leads by example, never plays favorites, and embodies and embraces everything a Team USA athlete represents. Serio was able to be a teammate of Schulte’s for the first 6 years of Serio’s career and taught him what it means to win on and off the court.

Through the lessons his mentors shared and his ability to lead wheelchair basketball teams, Serio soon found himself leading Team USA. Serio continues to learn about leadership and is constantly finding ways to become a better leader. The most important thing about being a leader, and something Serio prides himself on, is being a great communicator. Early in Serio’s career, he was like how one often pictures the “typical New Yorker”- brash, in your face, efficient, and had the idea that having these characteristics is how one wins. It took a while for Serio to learn different forms of communication and how his teammates best communicated, and who Serio was “…..allowed to yell at to motivate them to improve and get the best out of them….” and who did he needed “…..to put my arm around and provide them with a different type of feedback.”

Another important skill in leadership that Serio learned as he began leading his team is listening, stating that he believes that “you can not be a great leader until you learn how to follow.” While talented at a young age, Serio always respected that he was part of something bigger than just myself. The power of having a great team, coaches, staff, and family behind him every step of the way made it so much easier to compete in each game at a high level. Serio exemplifies how the biggest aspect of being a great leader is caring more about your goals as part of a group rather than the individual goals you can accomplish alone. 

Serio’s leadership was tested these past 18 months as the world experienced the COVID-19 pandemic that postponed the Olympics and prevented teams from being able to practice together. Serio remembers and shares with his team regularly an email that he wrote to them in March of 2020 at the very beginning of the pandemic, in which he wrote that the teams should “…….stay hungry; it’s the team that uses these few weeks effectively that are going to be on top of the podium, and this situation will only last a few weeks, so we need to stay focused on the goal.”

Little did Serio and his team know that 18 months later, the world would still be in the midst of a global pandemic, so he and the team had to shift gears. They tried to do team zoom workouts and stay collectively together as a team, but that just wasn’t going to happen effectively. So Serio decided that instead of trying to fight what was happening around them, the team should use that time to take a step back. “As a Team USA athlete, I am very well equipped to deal with success and failure, but I am not well equipped to deal with uncertainty. That is what the entire 2020 year felt like– uncertain,” Serio shared.  For Serio, being in New York City in 2020 during the height of the pandemic was a terrifying time. 

Yet, this allowed each team member to make sure that their loved ones and themselves were all safe and happy. They knew that they would have time to come together later. During this time away from the game, Serio focused on his mental health, picked up meditation, focused less on the sport’s performance aspect, and focused more on his general wellness. Serio focused on being present and only giving time to the things that he could control, which had helped him up to that point as an athlete, but which he never really had to apply beyond the court in real life. 

“While we all, as a team, took a step back, we really were working on the foundation of ourselves, so when we were able to get together for the first time at the start of summer 2021, we hit the ground running. Even after a year apart, we were as connected and close as if we had never been apart and as we were pre-COVID. This allowed us to really stay together as one unit and one team, which will give us the ability to accomplish our goals in the coming weeks.” 

As the team looked ahead to the Paralympics in Tokyo, they knew that COVID still would present a unique hurdle in the games. “The preparation that everyone, as Paralympians, is making and those that the Olympic athletes made before are unlike anything anyone has ever experienced,” Serio explained. While the stands will be empty and the testing and travel will be very different, the spirit of the games is as alive as ever. “The power of being an Olympian or Paralympian is truly about bringing communities together through sport and competition. The impact that we can have as athletes transcends what we do on the field of play.”

These Olympics in Tokyo are about a time of celebration, about perseverance, grit, about what it means to continue to be the best version of yourself in a very, very difficult moment. “As Paralympians, I believe that we are very uniquely suited for the challenge. We live different lives than everyone else every day. We are reminded of our differences, we’re reminded of what we don›t have, but we are provided with a platform to showcase our abilities.” While Tokyo will be a different and unique experience, Serio is even more excited than ever to compete for Team USA, for his country, and in the paralympic games. This is the moment that has taken 5 years to get here. “We as Paralympians will show our strength.”

Serio looks back on his pre-pandemic Olympics experience in Rio, where he and his team won their first gold medal, as an experience that he will never forget. Getting to the moment of gold was a journey that held many lessons in leadership. In Serio’s first Paralympics in Beijing, the team actually finished 4th, which was devastating for Serio. Four years later, the team won the Bronze medal in London, and that was an important stepping stone because it showed that the sacrifices and work that Serio had been doing was actually leading somewhere. “The atmosphere at that moment was electric and a game I will always remember.”

When fast forwarding four more years to Rio when the team won gold, it was not excitement or happiness Serio felt – it was  relief. Describing the moment, Serio says,  “Perhaps that is not the healthiest way to approach winning a gold medal, but that was something that I had personally worked for over a decade to accomplish – countless teammates, countless shots, and workouts. Finally, to have reached the top of that mountain, all I really wanted to do was smile and embrace that moment.  I have a vivid memory in my head of when the 12 guys got onto that podium and seeing our flag raised a little higher than everyone else’s and having our anthem play and just looking down to my left and looking down to my right and knowing that there was not another group of athletes that I wanted to share that specific moment with.” Serio goes on to describe the team, “At that moment, the team was so close and connected in Rio, and even putting aside all of the talents that we had, we just had a great group – from our staff to our players and that’s a moment that is gone, but it always will be a shared moment together.” 

Serio is definitely looking to add to that memory book in Tokyo. That moment was a moment he remembers where he felt relief like a weight was lifted off his shoulders. The team finally accomplished the goal that they had set almost a decade earlier. Even though the team has reached the goal they set out to accomplish, the pressure is not off to win again in Tokyo. The hardest thing to do in sports is not to just win, but to win again. There are many athletes and teams that have had a singular moment, but the true mark of a champion, especially in a team sport, is to win again. 

Serio has discussed why the team wants to win again by observing that the entire team is committed to making an impact greater than just winning another medal or winning another gold medal. They all want to further the Paralympic message and increase their platforms to reach the most amount of people possible. Serio shares that one of the ways that they can accomplish that broader impact and leave that lasting impact for the next generation is to continue to be successful on the field of play so that they can accomplish all that they want to accomplish off the field of play. 

Serio and Team USA are working to spread the message of the Paralympic games and the joy that adaptive sports can bring to people around the world. He encourages anyone interested in playing a sport to “just dive right in,”  and to not be afraid of not reaching their potential or failing.  Serio feels that anyone who wants to try sports should “Just go and do it.” When Serio started playing wheelchair basketball, he didn’t aspire to be a Team USA athlete. In fact, he didn’t even know there was such a thing at the time. Wheelchair basketball was just something he loved to do with kids who looked like him! The essence of sport is about bringing people together, and for Serio, that is what wheelchair basketball did. He loves wheelchair basketball. He loves the people involved with the sport. If Serio were to share advice with someone seeking to get started in the sport, he would say to them– “just go for it because the limits that are put on you in life are only put on you by yourself. The places you can go are truly limitless when you believe in yourself.”

For more information on Wheelchair Basketball or Adaptive sports, visit National Wheelchair Basketball Association Website (https://www.nwba.org/) for information on the sport or to find a local team. All ages and ability levels are welcome!

Also, consider supporting non-profits like adaptive sports non-profits. The Challenged Athletes Foundation provides adaptive sporting equipment to kids with disabilities. (https://www.challengedathletes.org/)