Sebastian River's Aaron Pena thrives in his arena as a wheelchair state champion

Spina bifida is a condition that has always limited Sebastian River senior Aaron Pena from doing all the things he'd like to do in his everyday life.

Using a wheelchair to move around for most activities, Pena always yearned to find avenues to be active from a child through high school.

Fortunately, a chance encounter with a physical education teacher as a 10th grader opened up a new activity that took on a journey of its own for both Pena and Sebastian River track coach Tony Flemming.

Their venture led to Pena finishing his career as a Shark with two gold medals at the FHSAA Track and Field Championships last week in Gainesville where the new Shark graduate put on a show in front of his family, which for some they saw for the first time ever.

"With everyone watching, I had to do good," Pena said of his state triumphs. "There was a lot of people watching and it made me a little nervous. I felt good for both of the races, I didn't feel nervous before them. I just tried to be confident."

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Pena came a long way with a big obstacle that has impacted thousands of people across the world, building confidence in his abilities with his wheelchair on the track.

Small fish in a small pond

Surgeries to allow Pena to be able to move around his limitations as a child were all he knew growing up.

Pena's mother Jovana tried to find any activities her son could try to partake in with his wheelchair in his elementary and middle school years.

In an area of Florida where she had few people to consult, Jovana looked long and far for support groups across the country to find guidance on what activities would be best for Aaron.

"It was always challenging for us. Indian River County is so small so there isn't much available to us when it came to adaptive sports," Jovana Pena said. "When he was around 13-14, we signed him up for recreation baseball and they did their best to accommodate him."

Aaron did as much as he could to be outdoors and be out in nature to not be cooped up outside of his schooling.

"I'd be active a lot in my own chair, but I wouldn't be able to do sports in my chair," Aaron Pena said about his childhood. "I'd run around outside but there weren't many sports for me."

As Aaron neared his high school years, Jovana developed more connections across Florida with the right people to steer her son into activities suited more for him.

Jovana befriended Jacqui Kapinowski, a two-time Paralympian who lives in Tequesta and is the president of Shifting Gears United, an organization that provides disabled kids and adults events and clinics to participate in.

Hand cycling was a sport Jovana felt her son could thrive in as Aaron always had the upper body strength that he was able to maintain through his growth as a child.

"She had lots of really good information and we got Aaron into hand cycling," Jovana Pena said. "We would drive Aaron down to Tequesta and there weren't too many people around Aaron's age but it was good for him because he could participate and he would be one of the faster racers."

Aaron had the opportunity to race in the Miami Marathon, which Jovana saw as a turning point in his confidence heading into his high school years.

Chance connection sparks the fire

Pena had no idea that adaptive track and field was even out there for him when he was a freshman. Across the state, there were a select few number of athletes that took part in track meets around Florida and fortunately for Pena, his coach knew that it was a possible fit.

Flemming had Pena as a student in a physical education class and out of the blue struck up a conversation about the prospects of giving track and field a try seeing that his student had the upper body strength to go along with a playful spirit.

"I knew he'd be a good candidate and I told him right then, you'd be a state champion," Flemming said. "We went back and forth a bit on getting him out there and he decided to come out for it."

From there, Flemming immersed himself into how to make competing a reality for Pena. The FHSAA has a program that allows potential participants in adaptive track and field to borrow wheelchairs to compete in the 200 and 800 meter dash.

Fortunately, one for Pena's build was available and as soon as it came in, they went to work learning the tricks of the trade.

Coach and student had their challenges trying to find the right aspects of how to properly train, which did not come easy with how few adaptive track and field athletes compete in Florida.

Much of Pena and Flemming's research had to be done watching videos on YouTube and going by trial and error each day they would practice on the track at Sebastian.

"There's been big-time progression and I knew it would be him getting used to the chair, we'd go back and forth about how to adjust his chair," Flemming said. "Once he got comfortable adjusting to it, he took off."

From his very first meet at Holy Trinity High School in Melbourne in March 2020, Pena’s times in his first three meets before COVID-19 cancelled the remainder of the spring sports season saw steady progression but all of that came to a halt that spring in more ways than one.

A brand new challenge

After the track season came to a stop for Pena, he contracted COVID-19 in June 2020. Jovana's father also contacted the virus around the same time and unfortunately passed away in August from complications.

Aaron was due to have surgery the same summer to clean out his bladder, which is a common symptom for those impacted by spina bifida.

Having to recover from that procedure on top of battling his COVID-19 case, Aaron developed long-COVID that at times rendered him to being in bed for hours on end.

"He'd go three months with no symptoms at all and out of nowhere, Aaron would feel something off with his vision and it would almost be immediately followed with complete exhaustion," Jovana said. "He missed a ton of school and academically it's always been a bit of a challenge for him which a lot of children with spina bifida struggle with executive function that makes learning more difficult for them."

With getting back on the wheelchair not even in any discussion with his struggles his junior year, Aaron managed to get back on track with his classes going back in-person after doing virtual classes in between his bouts with long COVID symptoms.

Finally feeling comfortable enough to physically feel he could try to compete on the track again, Aaron entered his senior season knowing he wanted to give competing a final try.

From posting times just inside three minutes in the 800 and times in the 200 from 37-to-39 seconds throughout the season, Aaron felt good about his progress but still had trouble with his stamina and had to miss meets during the year and almost didn't meet the minimum number of events to try to qualify for the postseason races.

Aaron met the criteria for number of events and the threshold of times needed to compete at state without any competitors in his district or regional meets and headed to Gainesville in search of state gold.

First competing in the 800, Aaron's time of 2:27.43 got the job done and in the 200 he backed up his win with another with a time of 34.78 seconds that stacked up among the best adaptive athletes in other states across the country.

What made the meet even more special for Aaron and the Pena family is that it came a day after Aaron's older sister Audalys received her white coat for the University of Florida's Veterinary College as she strives toward finishing medical school.

Some of Aaron's family had never seen him compete live and for those that couldn't make it in person, the family had a number of relatives calling in during his races to keep track of how he was doing.

Pena crossed the stage at graduation receiving his diploma last Saturday and will never forget the staff at Sebastian River who showed support for him in his endeavors.

What lies ahead next is uncertain for Aaron as he has thoughts of going away for college to continue competing. Schools out west in the United States have established programs, but in the meantime Aaron has a fallback to take classes at Indian River State College as he prepares for his next phase in life.

Though his journey has had its ups and downs, Pena has benefited from having people like Flemming in his corner and a supportive family with him every step of the way. They've pushed him forward and taught Pena the traits he'll carry with him wherever his path takes him next.

"I'm glad there were a lot of people here to tell me to keep going and keep doing this," Pena said. "You just never can give up."

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Sebastian's Pena achieves through obstacles to become state champion