Grad Student Takes the Reins in Disabled Student Community

Walk by Gymnasium 200A on Tuesday and Thursday evenings at the Ball State Student Recreation and Wellness Center and you may hear a soft, indistinct hums in the air. Walk closer to the doors and the hums begin to steadily amplify. It isn’t until you press your face up against the window on the door that you see a handful of power chair users pushing around an over sized soccer ball on the wooden gym floor. They fly across the floor, stopping abruptly. They turn their power chair 180 degrees and strike the ball with the attached steel frame on the front of their chair. The result is a crisp pass that’s picked up by a teammate and put right into the goal.

Around the gym, there are drill cones set up with soccer balls flying across the floor. Players weave and bob through the cones, flawlessly completing the layup drills.

The orchestrator of all this can be seen with his arms behind his back on the sidelines of the gymnasium floor, his whistle never too far from use, and his eyes widened at all times. Phil Keck, a Ball State counseling psychology doctoral student, took over the role of head coach for the Ball State Power Soccer team in Fall 2010. A man of immense academics and study, blends right in with the athletes in his plain Ball State  hooded sweatshirt and track pants. A native of Richmond, VA, Keck attended Virginia Commonwealth University for his undergraduate studies before taking over one of the most prominent Power Soccer teams in the nation, while working on his graduate education. Since the summer of 2009 when he received admission, he hasn’t looked back.

Keck immediately immersed himself into the campus community. In his second year in the masters program, while interning for the Counseling Center on campus, the school had him find a university community that was under-served. Keck had always expressed interest in those with physical disabilities, which is one of the reasons he decided to pursue his career path in disability rehabilitation.

Keck then met the director of Disabled Student Development, Larry Markle. Through Markle, he met the original coach of the Ball State Power Soccer team, Dominic Russo. Under Russo’s wing, Keck went from volunteer, to manager, to assistant coach, until finally being promoted to head coach when Russo moved on to be the President of the United States Power Soccer Association.

In just over a year, Keck has developed a palpable rapport with his players. Keck believes that his players are people first, students second, and athletes third. Words like “disabled” or the term “power chair” don’t apply.

“As a coach of a sport like this, I’m getting to the point now where I see the players on the field and it’s difficult sometimes to remember that we have wheelchairs going,” Keck said. “The wheelchairs disappear and you start to see the game unfold at a different level.”

Athletes with disabilities have the same mental drive to compete as an other player. Keck explained that physically, his athletes are unable to do that, except through sports like Power Soccer.  

Still to this day, even after coaching his team against the best of the best, Keck remains humble and eager to learn.

“I’m still learning about the sport and I’m still trying to wrap my head around some different concepts,” said Keck.  “I haven’t been involved or seen any other type of disability sport where they operate so competitively. It’s not something where everybody shows up and everybody wins all of the time. People win and people lose.” There are only two universities in the nation that have Power Soccer teams, with both drawing much of their talent from Indiana.  Ball State University and Arizona State University compete annually against top community teams.  According to Keck, the Arizona State Sun Devil Power Soccer club has drawn three of their players from the Indiana.

“I will be at Ball State for at least three more years, so I plan on seeing things through at least as long as I’m here,” he said. “As long as I’m local I’m going to help out Ball State Power Soccer.”