As adaptive athletics continues to gain global momentum, a determined group at Penn State is working tirelessly to ensure the university becomes a national leader in the movement—and they’re doing it with a “big picture” vision and the legacy of a once-thriving program guiding their way as a roadmap.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Penn State’s adaptive athletics program found itself at a crossroads. Once a national model under the direction of coach Teri Jordan, who led the program for over two decades and developed numerous Paralympians, the initiative was left virtually dormant after her 2019 retirement and the onset of COVID-19.
But thanks to the efforts of passionate alumni, coaches, student-athletes and nonprofit supporters, that narrative is shifting dramatically.
One of those alumni is Chuck Sypula, who’s been a leader of adaptive athletics at Penn State, spanning over three decades. His connection began with Jordan in the late 1990s and only grew stronger when he created the program’s first endowment in 2008. That same year, he traveled to the Paralympic Games in Beijing, what he calls an eye-opening and larger-than-life experience.
“To watch these talented, determined, very deserving young athletes from all over the world compete in the Paralympics was just a really life changing experience for me. It’s pretty wonderful,” Sypula said. “I got to see these Paralympians perform in front of 60, 70,000 fans while in Beijing. It was just a remarkable experience. I was hooked at that point.”
Despite its earlier success, the program faced an uncertain future. With zero athletes enrolled and the department moved out of Penn State Athletics and into Student Affairs, it risked fading entirely. Sypula and fellow advocates knew something had to be done.
“A couple alumni associates of mine and I got involved and went to the university and convinced them that the program needed to be back under athletics,” Sypula said. “Pat Kraft made that decision at the time, to bring it back under athletics and that was a huge move, really strong decisions. Our goal, of course, is to not just develop a robust program, but a program that can be really competitive with some of the other colleges in the country, the Michigans, the Illinois, the Alabama, the Arizona who have strong programs for adaptive athletes.”
The result of that push was Rise Above: Friends of Adaptive Athletics, a nonprofit organization founded by Sypula that now works in tandem with Penn State to support and expand the program. The group has taken a comprehensive approach by recruiting athletes, developing scholarship opportunities, and securing funding. But their ambitions go far beyond simply fielding teams.
“We were, in effect, starting from scratch, and we wanted to do it right,” Sypula said. “It meant more than just having athletes to compete, of course. It means developing a student advisor, for example, scholarships for the kids that we were recruiting. There’s a wide gamut of responsibilities that we are undertaking. Our board is all volunteers, a good group of men and women who have a real passion for Penn State and a real passion for adaptive athletics, several of whom are former Paralympians. We were really starting from scratch, really starting not just a sport, but a program.”
Today, Penn State Adaptive Athletics includes sled hockey, wheelchair track and field, and soon, wheelchair basketball, which will be formally announced at the program’s second annual fundraising event this Saturday, July 26, at the Nittany Lion Inn. The evening will be a major celebration and fundraiser for the program, and a testament to just how far it has come.
The sold-out event will feature keynote speaker Guy Gadowsky, head coach of Penn State men’s ice hockey and a staunch supporter of adaptive sports. Gadowsky and his team annually fundraise for the sled hockey program, helping them build a broader foundation through exposure and financial support.
Former Nittany Lion All-American and NFL player Mike Reid will also perform, ahead of a roundtable of legendary football alumni, including Chuck Burkhart, Lydell Mitchell and Steve Smear, to name a few. The Penn State football greats will reflect on their own time at Penn State under Joe Paterno’s “Grand Experiment.” It’s a nod to what Rise Above and Adaptive Athletics are now building: a new kind of experiment centered not only on sport, but character, academics and inclusion.
“There were no corners being cut on the academics, as many football programs back in that day used to do, much to the chagrin of Joe [Paterno] and his staff,” Sypula said. “Now, the grand experiment that we’re relating into … is this idea of developing an adaptive athletics program virtually from scratch. If there’s a common theme throughout all that, it’s the character of the athlete, and that is to say that it’s more than just sport. It’s academics, it’s their presence on campus, it’s the social aspects. It’s a character thing as much as it is an athletic thing.”
Also attending as the hosts of the event, will be Sue Paterno and Dana Harris, Franco Harris’ widow, both of whom have become key figures in the adaptive athletics community. For program director and head coach Brenna O’Connor, their support, and the visibility it brings to the table, is invaluable.
“Every program needs money. We want to continue to be able to offer scholarships to these student athletes. We have expenses, just like everybody else. So, the idea is to get more exposure,” O’Connor said, “A lot of people don’t know we exist, and this is like a big way to show them, ‘Hey, here we are, these are our needs…this is a culmination of this past year’s worth of work, especially through Rise Above. They did most of the leg work. I put my two cents in here but that’s not my background, I’m trying to direct and coach. They’re trying to take care of the money aspect for us, to help us raise funds. They are so passionate about adaptive athletics.”
For O’Connor and the Rise Above board, rebuilding began with a name—and that name was Max Malec. At the third annual Penn State Sled Hockey Classic in January, Malec became the first student-athlete to officially sign with the program since its 2023 reinstatement. That moment marked the launch of a new era.
“When you go to any event that has adaptive sports, the passion is amazing. Everybody’s into it, and they all support one another,” O’Connor said. “It’s like one big family, despite the different shirts that we’re wearing that say Penn State versus Michigan, that sort of thing. So I believe that it’s also growing with the exposure from the Olympic scene, the Paralympic scene. You see more commercials on TV from the Paralympics.
“Our job to get the word out so that we can get that support that other groups have, and university wide too, not just the program within our university, but just the overall picture, the big picture that people are more aware and supportive of these athletes because, hey, they’re just as competitive as any able bodied person. I know what [Malec’s] goals are, and he works hard every time he comes in to do a workout. They’re just working hard, just like anybody else.”
Hailing from North Pocono High School in Lackawanna County, Malec, a first-year broadcast journalism student and adaptive athlete, was born with a rare condition called spina bifida, a congenital disorder where the spine and spinal cord don’t develop properly during pregnancy. The condition has impacted his mobility, however, that hasn’t stopped him from becoming the one of the new faces of Penn State adaptive athletics.
At 11, Malec discovered sled hockey and quickly fell in love with the sport. Over the last two years, he trained and competed with the State College Coyotes, a local sled hockey program founded by DJ and Alexis Wilson in 2016, and a key partner in Penn State’s recruiting pipeline.
Now, Malec is more than just a face of the Coyotes and the Nittany Lions– he’s the foundation of something much bigger.
“I’ve been a Penn State fan my whole life. I’ve been bleeding blue and white since I was a baby,” Malec said. “So, once they started recruiting me, no other schools really recruited me, but I really didn’t care about that. Going here was a no brainer decision, and being able to play sled hockey for a team that I’m playing with people that I consider my brothers and sisters, it’s such a great locker room. And now to consider myself a Penn State student-athlete, just like the kids on the football team or the wrestling team or the hockey team. It’s incredible.
“To be able to reach my goals and work extremely hard using these facilities, it’s such a blessing, and I’m so excited for these next four years.”
His signing was made even more special by the presence of Gadowsky and the entire Penn State men’s hockey team. That same energy carried into the Sled Hockey Classic, where the Penn State student section turned out in full force and over $18,000 was raised. For a still-rebuilding program, that kind of momentum is priceless.
“This program makes it, I don’t want to say easier, in a way, but it makes it more attainable to reach my goals. It kind of really puts it in perspective how attainable it could be,” Malec shared. “To be able to use these facilities that other former Olympic athletes have walked through and trained at is incredible, and I feel almost a responsibility to do right by that. And I think something that will help us in the future is having that, and obviously with Penn State as a brand that is going to go so far with building our program now, getting the university to fully go, like, gung ho and support our program, that’s something that we’re working on, but I definitely think it’s going to happen without a doubt.
“It’s not going to be easy. Nothing easy in life or nothing good in life comes easy, but it’s going to be so worth it when we’re at the top of that mountain, competing with the world, and not only that, but to inspire other schools big and small.”
O’Connor — who started as a part-time coach following her time as a Penn State student-athelete to support another thrower, RJ Shirey — sees Malec’s role as more than athletic. For O’Connor, the Rise Above board and Penn State Athletics, he’s the cornerstone of a program looking to build lasting legacy.
“All the things that I’ve done leading up to this, all the coaching, all the teaching were stepping stones to this place, and I’ve coached a lot of great people. …I’m just blown away that I’m in a position to be able to grow a program and to work with athletes like Max, because he’s inspiring. RJ was inspiring, Esther Faith is inspiring because they could easily be like, ‘Woe is me. This is my lot in life. I have this disability,’ but they’re like, ‘No, I want to be an athlete. I want to do my sport just like anybody else,’ and I love that I get to work with them because I want to help them.
“…I will do everything in my power to give them the opportunity to train and to get to that next level so that they can look back and go ‘We Are…Penn State’ that they were able to have the opportunity here and beyond hopefully to represent Team USA in the Paralympic movement. So I’m just really humbled by this position, this opportunity. It blows my mind every day that I get to do this. And I always tell people I don’t feel like I’ve worked a day in my life. Everything I’ve ever done is stuff that I enjoy, and this is above and beyond anything that I thought I’d be doing.”
Since Malec committed, others have followed. Penn State announced its second signing, Jack Cunningham from Springfield, Pa., and more are on the way—from California, Colorado, Israel, and beyond. The goal is to build full sled hockey and wheelchair basketball teams, in addition to the individualized track and field events that already have roots at Penn State.
For now, Malec continues to train with focus and humility. He’s fueled by a deep sense of purpose and the understanding that he’s carrying a banner not only for Penn State, but for every aspiring adaptive athlete who dares to dream big.
“Having one goal is pretty audacious, and it’s a pretty daunting task. So to be able to get 1% better every day, doing the little things, training, eating right, getting enough sleep stretching, [O’Connor] hammers that home into my head,” Malec said. “But to be able to do those little things and kind of check those boxes off knowing that it’s building to what I ultimately want to do makes it all the more encouraging and makes it all the more driving and motivating to keep going.
“And plus, like I don’t feel worthy of this opportunity that I have, but I’m going to take full advantage of it. I’m so humbled to be a Penn State student athlete and to do right by this program. I feel like I have a moral obligation to achieve those high standards, not only to please a university that I’ve loved ever since I was a little kid, but to build a program that I firmly believe in, that I can see reaching beyond the stars. There’s absolutely no ceiling and no floor for this program. I think the sky’s beyond the limit for this program, and it starts with my class, not just myself, because it’s so much more than self.”
With a growing strong support from the university, alumni and the surrounding community, and thanks to the tenacity of people like O’Connor, Malec and Sypula, the once-dormant program is now thriving again with one practice, one fundraiser and one determined athlete at a time.
“The more people become aware of it, the more people get to understand the character of the families and the kids and what it means to them, the more appealing it becomes. It really is a movement in this country, and it’s really picked up a tremendous amount of steam,” Sypula said.
For more information on the program and to donate, visit gopsusports.com/adaptive-athletics.
