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Show SPORTS The Park Record. Editor: Ben Ramsey sports@parkrecord.com 435.649.9014 ex.15704 Twitter: @ParkRecSports SHEEPDOG FESTIVAL The 16th annual Soldier Hollow Classic Sheepdog Championship and Festival will return to the Heber Valley on Labor Day weekend. From Aug. 31 to Sept. 3, the festival will feature sheepdogs and handlers from around the world in herding competitions. Admission prices for children start at $6 online, $11 for adults and $10 for seniors. For full ticket prices and scheduling go to: soldierhollowclassic.com RUNNING EVALUATIONS Athletic Republic, a local training gym, is offering athletes in grades 8-12 one free 30-minute running mechanics evaluation between Aug. 20 and Sept. 20. The treadmill session includes video feedback and analysis from one of Athletic Republic’s trainers. Sessions will be offered at 4 and 4:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Each session is limited to two participants. To reserve a spot, call 435-729-7230. BOYS AND GIRLS YOUTH LACROSSE Park City Youth Lacrosse has extended fall season registration for select age groups. No experience is necessary for this recreational lacrosse program serving boys and girls in grades kindergarten through 8. The fall season begins the week of Aug. 20 and runs through Oct. 13. Visit parkcitylacrosse.org for more information and to register. Please see Sports briefs, B-4 Correction The Aug, 11 article “Season Passes: What’s new for 2018-2019” stated that Deer Valley season tickets purchased before Dec. 15 would double as IKON base passes. That is incorrect. Those that purchase Deer Valley season passes before Dec. 13 will receive a complimentary IKON base pass. MINERS GOLF TEAM LEADS REGION 11, B-2 www.parkrecord.com PARKITE SHOWS BEACH VOLLEYBALL SKILL , B-3 B-1 SAT/SUN/MON/TUES, AUGUST 18-21, 2018 A pickler plays through autoimmune ‘reset’ Community helps its own by providing meals and favors BEN RAMSEY The Park Record Beverly Chaidez is just getting to know her sport wheelchair. Weakened by multiple sclerosis, the apparatus currently providing her best shot at continuing to play competitive pickleball – an activity she says gives her purpose every day, and which has a community that has helped both she and her family in times of need. For Chaidez, who friends describe as strong and tenacious, giving up the game — even for the few months she expects to be in a wheelchair — was out of the question. So she is practicing. The chair is wide, low-slung and sports a rear caster wheel – attributes that make it more stable than a regular wheelchair. It’s also capable of going a lot faster. With one quick turn of the wheels she can cover much more of the Willow Creek Park tennis court in less time than her old chair would have. She hopes to have become proficient in using the wheelchair by Labor Day weekend, when she will compete in the Pickleball for Heroes tournament in Arvada, Colorado. Becoming a pickleball player Myrna Lueck, Chaidez’ sister, introduced her to the game three years ago, and since then, Chaidez said “99.9 percent” of her friends are from the pickleball community. Lueck said the group of pickleballers the sisters met are the people they go on vacations, ski and attend social functions with. “These are the people closest to me,” Chaidez said. “They’ve just been amazing.” For the past three years, Chaidez played pickleball while standing, but last winter her MS, which was diagnosed in COURTESY OF MYRNA LUECK Beverly Chaidez, left, and her sister, Myrna Lueck, during a recent day of pickleball. Chaidez recently received a sport chair, which she is training in for an upcoming tournament in Colorado. 1988, started getting worse. Multiple sclerosis causes the body to attack the fatty lining of the central nervous system, causing a variety of symptoms that can effect a person’s balance, mood, vision, strength and even intestinal function. In January, she and Lueck started to worry about her health. “She was not as clear-headed as she is now,” Lueck said. “She was very foggy, very depressed, scared of not knowing where the progression of (MS) is going to stop and not knowing if it’s going to kill her.” Ride into Summer This summer, cool down and rise up 9,000 feet to find stunning views and 26 beautiful miles of hiking and biking trails; then ride the gondola for a 360° view at lunch in Needles Lodge. Chaidez and Lueck had attended a conference in Atlanta just a month earlier where they met with doctors from Clinica Ruiz, a company with clinics in Puebla and Monterrey, Mexico, that specializes in an experimental treatment for autoimmune diseases. Though the procedure is has not been approved by the FDA, Chaidez and Lueck saw it as the best available option for treating MS. Chaidez scheduled a treatment for April, but moved it back to November because of a scheduling conflict. When Chaidez’s health took its downturn, she and Lueck moved the appoint- ment up to the end of January. “It was very scary,” Chaidez said. “I kind of didn’t think I was coming home alive.” Chaidez described the treatment by saying it would functionally reset her immune system through chemotherapy and other processes. When Chaidez returned, she had to rely on a wheelchair for mobility, but she started playing pickleball as soon as she could. Two days later she was on the courts, Please see A player’s, B-6 |