Girl with spina bifida lives inspiring lifestyle

ByTim Sarquis Localish logo
Thursday, November 7, 2019
Girl with spina bifida lives inspiring lifestyle
14-year-old Angelina was born with spina bifida, a birth defect of the spine which limits the use of her legs. Despite her disability, she doesn't let it define her. Angelina lives an active lifestyle, just like any high school student. She has participated in sports such as cheer, track and cross country. This year she's taking on a new sport, water polo. Join us as we follow along with Angelina for a day and how she lights up any room, or pool, she's in!

14-year-old Angelina was born with spina bifida, a birth defect of the spine which limits the use of her legs. Despite her disability, she doesn't let it define her. "It feels normal to me", she says. "It's hard to do things, but you can always find better ways to do it."

Angelina lives an active lifestyle, just like any high school student. She has participated in sports such as cheer, track and cross country. This year she's taking on a new sport at Yosemite High School in Oakhurst, CA, water polo. Angelina's Functional Skills teacher, Gege Drozen recounts her first meeting with her, "the first day I met her, she said to me 'Mrs, Drozen I'm going to be playing sports and I want to be on the water polo team.'"

"Water polo is not an easy sport", explains Yosemite High's head girls water polo coach, Erin Capuchino. "It's extremely physical, it gets a little testy under water, there's a lot of endurance that you need, a lot of skills." Speaking of Angelina's determination in the sport and in life, "She doesn't stop, she's still in the pool."

Angelina sets a great example of how a disability doesn't define what you can do in life. Drowzen explains, "I think its important to understand that students that do have disabilities, they're achieving great things in this world. She's a great example of that."

Join us as we follow along with Angelina for a day and how she lights up any room, or pool, she's in!