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While the top junior wheelchair singles and doubles tennis
players in the world battle it out on court in the US Open Junior Wheelchair
Championships in New York, a very attentive man sits in a wheelchair nearby
with a large black toolbox on his lap. Jacob Sharff, the wheelchair mechanic
and owner of How I Roll Sports: Adaptive
Sports Equipment for Adaptive Athletes waits to be summoned by walkie
talkie to courts where wheelchair matches are taking place. When he is called,
the clock begins ticking. “I have 15 minutes to make a repair or the player has
to default.”
Sharff proudly reports that he can fix a flat tire in 4
minutes. “That would give me 11 minutes if something else happens.” Sharff
humbly reports, “My biggest worry is that I won’t be able to make the
repair.”
This has happened in past US Opens—when the top men and
women players in two divisions—wheelchairs and quads—were also in town for the
competition. This year, and every four years when the Paralympics take place,
the US Open wheelchairs tournament takes a year off–though the prize money for
those who would have participated is shared to help cover costs of travel and
lodging.
Scharff laments an incident last year in the adult
competition when a man in the quads division’s backrest post “cracked in half.”
He reports sadly, “I couldn’t fix it—there were no parts.”
Sharff playfully reports, “I know how a firefighter must
feel—we are either a hero or that guy who is always on edge, waiting!”
Sharff, a resident of West Palm Beach, Florida, didn’t set
out to become a mechanic at the US Open and other pro and college wheelchair
tennis events. When he became paralyzed and a wheelchair user after a car
accident in 1999 at age 16, the now 42-year-old Sharff, who competes in
paratriathlons around the world representing Team USA, discovered that the only
source of sports equipment was medical supply companies. “You had to get your
chair in the same place that sold catheters and hospital beds!” He began
thinking, “How cool would it be if adaptive sports equipment could be sold in
its own place?!” Sharff, who already owned the internet domain name
howiroll.com—where he was blogging and sharing photos for what he describes as
the “newly injured,” left his 9 to 5 job as a production coordinator at a tea
company to start his own company in 2013. He reports, “20 to 25% of our
business is international—I have sold to the Middle East, Australia and New
Zealand!”
Several years ago, Sharff was approached to work at several
university wheelchair tennis events and other USTA (United States Tennis
Association) events. The USTA reports that it is “dedicated to providing
top-flight programming and developmental opportunities to wheelchair athletes
of all ages and backgrounds“ and invest in tournaments and player development.
Sharff can’t wait to be back in New York next year!