ETSU student Eric Hollen is a disabled veteran who has regained hope and discovered a new purpose in life through sports. He wants to give disabled students and veterans the opportunity to have the same success by starting a Disability Sports Club at ETSU.
Hollen’s passion for the program is driven by his own experience of having a spinal chord injury. His injury happened in March 2001 at his horse farm when his 4,000-pound tractor flipped over and landed on him.
“When I got hurt, I had to go through that anger, denial, acceptance portion. So in the process of going through the initial injury and the rehabilitation process which lasted about 18 months for me, I worked really hard,” said Hollen. “I had never had a physical limitation before in my life.”
Hollen is a former member of the U.S. Army Special Forces. Before his injury, Hollen was very physically active. However, he did not allow his injury to hold him back and got into pistol shooting.
“I knew I couldn’t compete with like a Michael Phelps or any of the able-bodied track athletes or downhill alpine ski racers,” said Hollen. “But I did know that I could line up on a line in a relay and shoot a score that is as good as any able-bodied athlete in the nation.”
Hollen’s inspiration for the program came on Thanksgiving Day in 2003 at the Walter Reed Army Hospital.
“I went in there and saw all the traumatic amputations and I saw the devastated looks on the faces of not just the injured but on their families’ as well,” said Hollen. “That’s when I realized I needed to be a counselor because I have something to offer to that population.”
From that point, Hollen viewed his injury as a new opportunity. He said that from that opportunity he has exceeded any of the accomplishments he had achieved before his injury.
Hollen teamed up with Liz Schoen, executive aide for Center of Excellence/assistant athletic trainer for track and field, and Meg Stone, director of the Center of Excellence at ETSU, to get the program started. After they formulated the proposal for the Disability Sports Club program, Hollen met with President Paul Stanton. After hearing the proposal of the program, Stanton set up a meeting with Congressman Phil Roe. They presented the proposal to Roe at his office in Northeast State Community College on April 9.
“The meeting went good; actually, it went great” said Hollen. “President Stanton thinks it is going to be about a year to get it up and running.”
Stone served as a catalyst for the program. She said, “My role has been a facilitator, to make contacts, set up meetings, reorganize his proposal and get the ball rolling.”
When Hollen approached Stone about starting a sports program for disabled veterans and students, she was thrilled with the idea. Stone said that since they started the process of getting the program approved there has been nothing but positive things happen. Stone feels that ETSU will benefit in many ways once the program gets started.
“It can bring a lot of publicity to the university because we’re doing something for the better good,” said Stone. “ETSU will get recognition that we’re doing this. I think we will be able to allow able-body athletes to appreciate the difficulty disabled athletes go through.”
Schoen also agrees that the program will benefit ETSU in many ways. Schoen said that they try to do a disability sports clinic every year. When they had one a year and a half ago, there were some guys interested in playing wheelchair basketball.
“We realized this dream and want of a disability sports program and then realized we could turn this dream into a reality,” said Schoen.
Schoen said the main focus of the program is to become the next step in the recovery process for wounded veterans.
“When the wounded veterans return home they go to Walter Reed Army Medical Center and then can be in the Wounded Warrior program but there’s not really another step after that,” said Schoen. “We want to be that next step.”
Schoen said that Hollen’s passion for the program has motivated her in many ways.
“One thing I’ve learned from Eric is don’t put off something that you can do today,” said Schoen. “He inspires me to want to do more here at ETSU but also do more with my life; it makes me want to give back.”
Hollen is getting his undergraduate degree in social work with general counseling as his major. He plans to graduate next spring then attend graduate school at ETSU. After graduating from graduate school, Hollen’s goal is to become the first full time Director of the ETSU Center of Excellence- Disability Sport Club. There are only 12 universities nationwide that offer a disability sports program. ETSU will be the first university in the state of Tennessee to facilitate this opportunity for disabled students and veterans to participate in sports. Some of the sports that are going to be offered are wheelchair basketball, rifle/pistol shooting, swimming, adaptive skiing and track and field.
The Disability Sports Club will be a non-profit establishment within the ETSU campus and funded through the Department of Defense. Hollen said that they’re hoping to receive around $30,000 in grants for the program. Through the program they plan to offer scholarships. He is on the U.S. Paralympics Pistol Team and shoots a 10-meter air pistol and a 50-meter free pistol. He is ranked No. 1 in the nation and in the top five in the world.
“The way that I found success from the injury to recovery was initially through sports and sports built up my self confidence along with college. So academics and athletics helped me regain a sense of purpose” said Hollen.

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