Galion English teacher honored by state track association for helping disabled children

A Galion City Schools English teacher with a passion for track led him to receive a state award for creating the Seated Division State Championship for children in wheelchairs.

David Kirk was presented with the Ed Barker Award by the Ohio Association of Track and Cross Country Coaches (OATCCC).

“It takes who knows how many thousand people to make something like this happen, one person does not make it happen,” Kirk said. “I’m very humble to recognize my part that I played, but I am accepting this on behalf of all these guys that contributed to it - this was truly a team effort to make this happen.”

Ed Barker was one of the founding fathers of the State Track Association, and the award was named in his honor. Nominations are accepted, and Kirk said he has "an idea" who put is name in, but he's not sure.

“It’s an award that goes back, man, I don’t even know how many years,” Kirk said. “It is the highest honor given by the OATCCC to a person who has shown extraordinary dedication toward the sports of cross country and track in Ohio, and it recognizes individuals who have shown exceptional service to the OATCCC.”

How Kirk came up with his idea?

Kirk had lived in the Cleveland area and coached at Chagrin Falls High School after returning to the U.S. from overseas where he taught for the State Department.

At the time, he was a liaison to the U.S. Olympic Committee and began a state track championship program for children in wheelchairs.

“I was the one that wrote that program,” Kirk said. “Those were the kids that before this program would not have had this opportunity − it was not there.”

The idea came to him in 2011 when the Ohio State High School Athletic Association, of which Kirk was a member, was looking for what it stood for, and what it was all about, and the model for the 2012 was track and field for everybody.

Organizers felt there was a group of children who did not have an opportunity to participate. In 2012, Kirk started going back and forth to Colorado to learn from the Olympic Committee what other states were doing when it came to disabled youth.

The first state wheelchair children championship was held in 2013. Kirk said the program finally became a reality thanks to the cooperation of multiple agencies and people, including the U.S. Olympic Committee, OATCCC and others.

“Yes, my idea, my thing, and I wrote it, but it took teams of people to make it actually happen,” Kirk said.

Impact the tournament had on the wheelchair children

In 2013 around six children showed up for the competition, and now the event has grown to 20-30 kids after the pandemic. About 26 or 27 other states mimicked the Ohio Seated Division State Championship.

“We did it because we thought it was the right thing to do for kids,” Kirk said. “It was pretty neat. It was a very-very special thing to be a part of.”

U.S. Paralympian Jenna Fesemyer was one of the people impacted by the championship organized by Kirk. She said she met him during her freshman year of high school when he approached her and asked if she knew about the wheelchair racing.

"Little did I know that that interaction would change my life," Fesemyer said.

OHSAA Director of Communications and Special Projects Bob Goldring said since meeting Kirk, Fesemyer participated for three years in the OHSAA State Track & Field Tournament seated events – including the first season in 2013 – and won 12 gold medals in four events.

Fesemyer still holds OHSAA records in the seated 100 and shot put. Since graduating from Ravenna Southeast High School, she has continued to excel both athletically and academically, Goldring said.

One of the highlights was qualifying for the 2020 U.S. Paralympic Team that competed in Tokyo, where Fesemyer finished seventh in the 5,000, 11th in the marathon and qualified in the 1,500.

Fesemyer holds bachelor and master degrees from the University of Illinois, where she is working on her Ph.D. focusing on how sport specific interventions can promote wellness for adolescents with physical disabilities and continues her training.

"My interaction with Dave Kirk quite literally changed my life." Fesemyer said.

The championship that had previously been held at the Ohio State University, has recently been moved to the University of Dayton for the 2024 event.

After organizing the championship, Kirk came home to Galion due to a family situation.

He still coaches for the U.S. Olympic Committee and works with the Department of Defense to put together the Warrior Games for the wounded and injured veterans that also originated with the U.S. Olympic Committee.

“All of that led to leaving the sport better than I found it, or trying to,” Kirk said.

This article originally appeared on Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum: Galion teacher earns Barker Award from Ohio track association