Niemann’s career choice is the natural next step
ENVISION Magazine, 2004
Zac Niemann, senior from Gretna, Neb., decided in high school he wanted to become a prosthetics technician/practitioner. To accomplish that goal he needed to select one of the 10 schools in the nation that have prosthetics programs, and equally as important, one of the six colleges in the country that have wheelchair basketball teams. Niemann selected Century College in White Bear, Minn., for his prosthetics program and UW-Whitewater for his undergraduate degree and basketball career.
Niemann became a left-leg amputee at age three, due to complications from a staphinfection. But that didn’t slow him down from participating in football, band, choir, wheelchair basketball and getting a 4.0 GPA in high school.
Enter Jim Winship. Niemann was in Whitewater at a junior wheelchair basketball camp after his senior year in high school when he first met Winship, associate professor of social work. “I was trying to meet with someone from the biology department,” said Niemann. “It was just the luck of the draw that I happened to meet with Jim Winship and it turned out to be a blessing.” Winship turned the tables for Niemann by creating an academic program where he could work toward achieving his life plan without sacrificing his love of basketball.
The blessing was finding out about the individually designed major (IDM). This major is designed to permit students to focus their course of study on a topic or problem area, which falls outside the limits of a conventional major. The purpose of the IDM is to accommodate and integrate the courses and programs now offered by the university. Before meeting with Winship, Niemann didn’t know IDM existed. “They are not just handing me a diploma,” said Niemann. “As long as I bring up feasible ideas to them, they say, great, we’ll make it happen. It worked out great that I came here. Hey, double bonus!”
With help from Peter Mesner, assistant professor of biological sciences, the outgoing and competitive Niemann created a 54-credit individualized major in preprosthetics. “UW‑Whitewater doesn’t have a biomechanics degree, which is what I was looking for,” Niemann said, “so we designed a major with physics, anatomy and kinesiology working together–just splashes of three different programs.”
A straight A student, Niemann works for Project Assist tutoring students in upper-level math and sciences and is three credits short of completing the honors-option program. “Teachers who I’ve done honors-option projects with apply it towards what I’m going into,” said Niemann. “Like my kinesiology teacher, we did an analysis of an amputee’s gait (walking) versus a normal gait.”
When he’s not studying or tutoring, Niemann is a starter on the Warhawk Men’s Wheelchair Basketball team and was a key player in the National Intercollegiate Wheelchair Basketball tournament victory in March 2003.
“University of Texas-Arlington had the ball; it was tied. With time under the shot clock, they were setting the play to run out the clock with about 10 seconds to go. I made a read on the pass and tipped it out. One of our point guards picked it up and called ‘time out.’ With 3.7 seconds left, guard Jeremy Lade finagled it up and it happened to go in. Heck of a story,” Niemann narrated.
Tracy Chynoweth, coach of the men’s
wheelchair basketball team and coordinator of
club and wheelchair sports, expressed his feelings
about Niemann as more than just a member of
the team. “Zac Niemann is a co-captain, one of
our leaders both on and off the floor. I think of
him as a linebacker in a basketball uniform. He’s
a very good athlete and a better person.”
– Cindy Vergenz