Ferris State University graduate Andrea “Speedie” Hampton is a medal-winning fencer and softball player who competes from a wheelchair due to the ongoing impact of her multiple sclerosis.

Hampton is one of four people named 2023 Meijer State Games of Michigan Athletes of the Year. She is a medal-winning fencer and softball player who competes from a wheelchair as a result of the ongoing impact of her multiple sclerosis.

The Grand Rapids resident was diagnosed with the disease at the age of 26, and she still remembers that day with vivid clarity.

“I honestly had never heard of the disease,” she recalled recently. “When the doctors told me what I had, I was afraid, and I was angry. I remember I screamed a lot in my car the first day I was given the news.”

But, she added, she eventually was able to channel that anger in productive ways, including athletics.

Growing up in Grand Rapids and attending Ottawa Hills High School, sports had always been an important part of Andrea’s life.

“I have an older brother, and whatever he played, I wanted to play as well,” she said with a smile. “In high school, I played hockey and softball.”

In fact, it was hockey that first got her connected to Ferris State.

“I actually went to hockey camp a few times in middle school at Ferris,” she said. “I knew I wanted to go to Ferris when I was able to go to college.”

When she finally got to Big Rapids after graduating from Ottawa Hills, she studied Recreation Management Leisure Services and said she enjoyed her time in and out of the classroom.

“I enjoyed the atmosphere a lot,” she said. “I went to a lot of games, and I also played a few years of intramural sports.”

As she looks back, though, she also suspects that it was in college that her first MS symptoms began to appear.

“I didn’t pay much attention to it at that time,” she said. “I remember one time I was going to the bank, and I noticed that my walking was becoming harder for me to do. Also, we played games in one of my classes, and I noticed my running wasn’t the same.”

In May 2011, she received her diagnosis of relapsing-remitting and secondary progressive MS.

The National MS Society notes that relapsing-remitting is the most common disease course, with attacks followed by remission. Secondary progressive MS, it adds, follows the initial relapsing-remitting course and disability accumulates over time.

Hampton has seen that play out in real-time. She went from walking to walking with a cane, and now, the majority of her time, she uses a wheelchair to move around and get things done. She also just switched over to using hand controls for driving.

Sports have helped her in numerous ways, she said, as her disease progresses. And she extends a huge word of thanks to Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital for its role in her athletic journey.

“They helped me regain my confidence with playing adaptive sports,” she said. “When I was first diagnosed with MS, one of the things that got me down was that I thought I was done playing sports.”

A chance encounter with the Griffins Youth Foundation’s sled hockey program and the Grand Rapids Griffins was the first spark that eventually fueled her full-scale entry into adaptive sports.

“The Griffins were at Belknap (Griff’s Icehouse at Belknap Park) and were going to play sled hockey with the Sled Wings, and for a dollar, I tried a sled for sled hockey,” she said. “I had the biggest smile on my face being back on the ice and just coasting around. One of the coaches noticed the smile and told me how I could participate in adaptive sports through Mary Free Bed Hospital, and I have been going strong with them in the sports world ever since.”

Going strong is an understatement.

At the Meijer State Games, she has won gold medals twice in fencing in the adaptive foil division. And in 2023, she also competed with able-body fencers and finished sixth in women’s foil and ninth in women’s epee. She also earned the Sportsmanship Award at the 2022 National Wheelchair Softball World Series in Chicago.

In honoring her as adult female athlete of the year, the Meijer State Games noted that “her continued vivacity for life and love of sports have allowed Hampton to adapt and find new avenues, have fun and stay active. She is known for being fearless, friendly and fun, and never lets her physical limitations define her.”

For her part, Hampton shrugs off such accolades.

In May 2024, she will mark her 14-year anniversary of having MS. A lot has changed in her life as a result, but, she said, she plans to keep moving as long as she can, a Ferris forward Bulldog.