The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

GENESIS Academy’s fifth grader Nicholas Pierre is not your ordinary student/athlete.

Born without any arms and just one complete leg, the 11-year-old is making the best of his prostate leg as he struts himself on the mat in the sport of taekwondo, on the soccer pitch and on the track as an aspiring Paralympian.

“He’s very independent and very active,” said his single parent mom Brandace Duncanson as she provides support for her son from one sport to the next on a weekly basis.

“He took a liking to taekwondo and started that in January. About two weeks ago, he was elevated to his yellow belt. He also plays chess and is very good. But he also plays soccer and now he’s training with Andretti Bain.”

In addition to his extracurricular activities, Duncanson said her son is very articulate and is one of the top students in his class.

“When he was younger, he would pick up his colouring with his toes and colour,” she remembered. I told him when he started school, I don’t think they will let you do that.

“So we had to find different ways for him to do the same thing. So I went to Kelly’s and got some grip tags and attached it around his neck because both of his arms are severed above the elbow. And then he would try to write like that.”

Through his innovation, Pierre began placing his pencil between his chin bone and his shoulder to write. Duncanson said she was surprised that his writing was so perfect, not from a child who doesn’t have hands.

“He would study children and other people and try to find a way to do what they are doing,” she noted. “He’s very determined, very resilient as well. We went through the bullying. I had my share of it and am still going through it. But he’s learned to laugh at himself. He’s very funny.”

Duncanson also enrolled Pierre in a travelling camp based in the United States of America called “No Limits” for children and adults, who travel around the USA to understand and appreciate that they are not alone in the world.

As an only child, Duncanson said she tries to provide as much assistance as she can and that is why she is supporting him in all of his sporting adventures as he hopes to one day compete in the Paralympics.

Robert Butler, a vice president of the Bahamas Olympic Committee, has worked with Pierre since January with his Badojang Taekwondo in the Town Center Mall opposite Furniture Plus on the ground floor.

“He’s a super easy kid to work with,” Butler said. “His lack of physical appearance, having no arms and just one leg, doesn’t stop him from doing what I ask him to do.

“He’s very eager to even try kicks that I think he shouldn’t even try at the moment. He doesn’t let his disability be a hindrance. He just passed his first test for his certification for his yellow belt and he’s getting ready to take his next test for his brown belt.”

In the sport, competitors are expected to utilise their legs more to kick and that has been the only downfall for Pierre. But Butler said it’s only a disability to the instructors and not to Pierre.

“He’s a very nice kid to work with,” he stressed. “He seems very enthused even though he plays soccer and runs track too. He’s not a kid that sits down and sucks and moans because of his disability.”

Butler said his only plea is that more should be done to make the public and students in particular understand that there is nothing wrong with children with disabilities.

“We see it as a disability, but he doesn’t see it that way,” he noted. “You can’t tell a blind person that they are blind because it’s very offensive to them. We need to be more accepting and give everyone with a disability a chance and we would be surprised at what they can accomplish.”

Butler’s taekwondo classes, geared mainly for children with disabilities, are held from Monday to Saturday from 4:30 to 7:30pm.

Interested persons can contact Butler at 359-3683.

While training Duncanson in his physical fitness classes, Olympian Andretti Bain said he was introduced to Pierre, who has expressed a desire to become a Paralympian.

“He’s a very disciplined and very focused kid,” said Bain, a former quarter-miler for St John’s College and Oral Roberts University. “Considering all things, he’s also extremely independent.

“There are many times when people would ask ‘Nicholas do you need help with anything’ and he would say ‘no, I got it. No, I can do it.’ He’s extremely disciplined.”

Having trave;led around the world representing the Bahamas in the 400 metres, 400m hurdles and on the 4 x 400m relay team, Bain said Pierre has all the ingredients, not only to become a paralympian, but a gold medallist.

“His drive and his determination and his independence is equivalent to any able body athlete that I’ve met,” Bain said.

“So I’m extremely inspired by him, I’m extremely impressed by him and I believe he has all of the attributes and all of the qualities for him to be extremely successful in life, in sports and anything that he decides to do.”

On a daily basis, Bain works on Pierre’s strength and conditioning and also provides mentorship and is a positive male role model for him to emulate.

Coach Lawrence Lewis said Pierre has been a welcome addition to the Dynamos Youth Soccer Club at the Mermaid Community Center in Carmichael. “As with anything, it’s a little bit of a challenge starting out, so I think he’s just getting accustomed to the movement and how we operate,” Lewis said.

“But personality, he’s fine. The team has embraced him well. He’s just learning, whereas a lot of the kids in his age group have been playing together for a while.”

Despite his disabilities, Lewis said he was received with open arms in the under-13s division that works out every Saturday morning. “For him, it’s the same as any player coming in and getting accustomed to a system and being comfortable with the environment and how they move and operate,” Lewis said. “So for him, he’s going through that same acclamation process.”

Pierre, according to his mom, is making the most of his life experiences.

A jovial Pierre said he “likes participating” in sports, but he enjoys taekwondo the most because of the “colour of the belts and the moves” he has to make.

In the future, Pierre said he would like to represent the Bahamas at the Paralympics and “win a gold medal.” He said he’s “pretty good,” especially in taekwondo because “I listen to my coach.”

To other Bahamians who are handicapped and feel that it’s not for them, he had these words to share with them: “Sports is healthy for you and it’s a lot of fun.”

Additionally, he stressed that “you can play some games instead of sitting on the computer all day and not doing anything. Get outside and breathe some fresh air.”

Pierre has certainly not allowed his disabilities to deprive him from making the best of his ability to perform.