Where so many others have found despair, Dominic Cooke found opportunity.

Opportunity to help and opportunity to heal.

As he lay in a Sacramento hospital room following a car accident in December 2001, paralyzed from the waist down, the former Jesuit High School and Cal rugby star couldn’t imagine life in a wheelchair.

Now, from his wheelchair, he’s making a bigger impact than he ever could have on the pitch.

On Saturday, during the 37th Eppie’s Great Race, Cooke, 30, will compete with fellow paraplegic Matt Strugar-Fritsch, 27, and Jon Bik, a 36-year-old above-the-knee amputee, as “Team TFO.”

“After my accident, exercise was the best remedy,” Cooke said. “It has been the best thing for me.”

Since his accident, Cooke has participated in myriad activities one wouldn’t normally associate with a paraplegic, such as skydiving, paragliding and swimming.

“I’m always looking for things people tell me I can’t do,” Cooke said.

TFO, which stands for Try for Others, is the nonprofit organization Cooke formed in 2005 to support athletes who have suffered life-altering injuries and sponsor them for adaptive athletic competition. Money is raised through private donations, sponsorships and the TFO clothing line.

“There are two stages to recovery: immediate assistance (in the hospital),” Cooke said, “but when you get out, the recovery truly begins. That’s where Team TFO comes in.”

TFO is sponsoring four other athletes with physical disabilities in Saturday’s race.

“It’s a great thing that (Cooke) has done,” race founder Eppie Johnson said. “If he’s got the energy to put that together, I have to give him credit.”

Eppie’s Great Race, which takes place on the American River Parkway between Sunrise Boulevard and Sacramento State’s Guy West Bridge, consists of a 5.82-mile run, a 12.5-mile bicycle ride and a 6.35-mile paddle.

The race will feature more than 2,000 athletes as organizers anticipate an all-time participation record. The previous record was set in 1988, when 2,006 people participated in the no-swim triathlon.

“Five-point-eight (miles) is going to kick my (butt),” said Bik, who will run the first stage. “But if it raises awareness for this cause, it’s worth it.”

In January 2005, Bik fell 40 feet from a power pole while working for the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, tearing his left ACL and meniscus while his right leg was dislocated at the knee. Following five unsuccessful surgeries, the right leg was amputated above the knee.

Ten months after the accident, Bik, sporting a prosthetic running leg, participated in the Run to Feed the Hungry. In 2007 and 2008, he finished second in the Triathlon World Championships in the above-the-knee amputee division and won the U.S. title in 2008.

Strugar-Fritsch shattered two vertebrae in his back after falling from a 10-foot drop while mountain biking in Michigan on Aug. 30, 2003.

Cooke believes that Eppie’s Great Race, which has always included an adaptive division, is the perfect avenue to promote TFO’s cause.

“We want to integrate adaptive sports everywhere,” Cooke said. “We want to show people that these are athletes just like you. They just have a different situation.”

Source