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JILLIAN BANDESIn the pool, competing, East Lake High student Kyle Mattina finds a place he can excel.
EAST LAKE - At a glance, Kyle Mattina doesn't stand out among the 20 or so athletes at morning practice for the East Lake Woodlands Country Club swim team.
But it took much more for him to get where he is than it did for the rest of the teens in the pool.
Kyle, 19, is autistic. As a part of his autism, he suffers from sensory integration disorder, which initially turned something as simple as swim practice into a terrifying challenge. Neurological disorganization in his brain causes him to process information from his senses in a way that makes a large gathering of people seem like an army descending upon him, and the feeling of swimming in a pool like living in a 3-D movie.
In effect, Kyle experiences the world in a state of sensory overload.
"It was such a milestone for Kyle to put his face in the water," said his mother, Dorothy Mattina. With his mother's encouragement and the example of his brother Kevin, 13, who was already a swimmer, Kyle slowly became acclimated to the water.
At 15, he began swimming on the Coast Guard Swim Team in Mobile, Ala., where his father worked at the U.S. Coast Guard Aviation Training Center.
"Once you got him swimming, you couldn't stop him," Dorothy Mattina said. "He would come home from swim practice and spend all afternoon in the pool at home."
When Kyle's family moved to Oldsmar two years ago, he began attending the autistic program at East Lake High School. Along with providing a separate classroom for autistic students, the program mainstreams them into some regular high school classes to help them develop social skills.
In keeping with that idea, Kyle was invited to participate on East Lake High's swim team.
His coach, Sybil Lotz, had seen him swim the summer before at an East Lake Woodlands swim clinic, and felt that Kyle was able to meet the challenge of participating in practices and meets.
"I didn't even think about it," Lotz said of Kyle's disorder. "I just saw him as being a regular kid."
Kyle earned a varsity letter for the 2002 swim season, along with the team award for most improved swimmer.
"He practiced as hard, if not harder, then the rest of the kids out there," Lotz said.
From Kyle's development as an athlete and his outstanding academic record, he received the John Lynch Salute the Stars Award in April. This honor is given to a disabled athlete each year, and is intended to reward and acknowledge student-athletes who are active in their community.
"I think what really stood out about him is that he participates in a varsity sport," said Maggie Doran, executive director of the John Lynch Foundation. "He was out there with able-bodied students, which says a lot."
Swimming has been an integral part of Kyle's social and emotional development. The pool has become a place where Kyle feels completely comfortable, and interacting with other swimmers has reduced his social fears tremendously in the past year.
"The pressures that society puts on an autistic individual almost don't exist for Kyle when he is in the pool," his mother said. "Swimming has done so much for him."