Kathryn Lubahn, a junior at Pine City High School who suffers from spina bifida, was one of six wheelchair athletes to compete in the inaugural season. "Kathryn was the manager on the girls' basketball team, and our athletic director was the head coach," says Head Track and Field Coach Bill Frame. "When he found out about the rule, he told Kathryn about it. Then, after providing documentation to the state that she was disabled, we dove in headfirst."

The main challenge was getting Lubahn physically ready to compete in her chosen event, the shot put. "Kathryn had played wheelchair basketball before and done some work on a farm raising miniature horses, so she was athletic and physically active," Frame says. "But she hadn't really been part of an organized team workout. We wanted her routine to be similar to the one our other athletes did, but we weren't sure what she was capable of.

"The athletic director and I spoke to her adaptive adviser and looked at things athletes in other states had done to see if there were any ideas we could use," he continues.

With some insight from Lubahn, Frame developed a workout routine that focused on free weight work. However, the details of Lubahn's workout weren't the only concern. Frame says it was also important to make her feel like a part of the team, and he found Lubahn's new teammates did this without much direction, striking a nice balance between being welcoming but not smothering.

"We're a small community where no one is really a stranger, so all of Kathryn's teammates already knew her," Frame says. "The other throwers took her under their wing, which was nice. But the key was that while the team embraced her as part of the squad, they didn't go overboard and make her the central focus. She appreciated that."

Still, practical challenges arose during workouts. "Kathryn needed her wheelchair held in place while she threw, so I had to make sure someone was there helping her," says Frame. "I wound up giving her more attention than I did any other athlete, which I might need to adjust."

In meets, Lubahn had the option of staying in her wheelchair with Frame holding it, or using a specially designed seat. She chose to stay in her chair, providing an ethical issue for Frame.

"State rules regulate how close coaches can be to able-bodied athletes," he says. "But because I can be closer to her as I'm holding her chair, I could see how it would be tempting for a coach to notice certain things they might otherwise miss.

"Another hurdle was improving her technique," Frame continues. "We had an assistant who worked with our other throwers, and he would give Kathryn tips, but sometimes, he'd forget to concentrate on her upper body. So he had to modify his advice."

Additionally, because Lubahn was the only wheelchair athlete competing in the shot put in the state, she didn't have an opponent pushing her, and it was difficult to gauge her performance. She wound up looking at distances recorded by athletes in other states to assess her results.

During the state championships, competing alone, Lubahn threw a personal record of 10 feet, 11 1/2 inches. Despite her efforts, the throw didn't earn Pine City any team points at the meet, something Frame says is a point of contention among parents. "They want the points to count, because their kids are putting in the work every day and coming to practice," he says. "But is it fair for a team to get first-place points in an event when there's only one person in it?

"The flip side is that if you don't award disabled athletes points, how can you increase participation?" he continues. "Any time you add an athlete to a roster, it increases your challenges as a coach, so are we all going to go out of our way and add an athlete we know can't help us win a meet? That's something we need to figure out. I think this is a great thing for Minnesota's track community, but I wonder if it will continue to take hold."