A day in the life of Bridie Kean, circa wintertime in the late 2000s:
6:30 a.m. Report to the ARC for wheelchair basketball practice, “often pushing through snow to get” there.
8:30 a.m. Practice is over, leaving just enough time to swing by Espresso Royale for a quick jolt of caffeine before heading to classes.
Mid-afternoon. The basketball team gets back together, this time for weightlifting at the Disability Resources and Educational Services gym.
Such was the mile-a-minute life of a future Paralympic medalist and research scholar at the Centre of Excellence for Applied Sport Science Research at Australia’s Queensland Academy for Sport.
Says Dean (BS '11, media studies) from down under: “The days were full and busy, but there was always time to enjoy a coffee or two with teammates and reflect on what we were working toward in school and sport.
“I loved the spring, when the sunshine would break through the cold, melting the snow from the Quad. In the spring, we spent our afternoons after class on the sunny Quad, drinking Iced coffee. We would then join a group from the wheelchair basketball team who continued to play basketball every afternoon in our off-season.
“In the spring, an average day for my Australian teammate and I was to go to class, drink coffee on the sunny Quad, play basketball for a couple of hours and then head home via a bustling campus excited by the spring sunshine and reflecting on how it was the perfect way to spend a day.”
