Gathered on the slippery tiles of the IM Sports-West pool deck, 15 or so members of the MSU Triathlon Club stretch and chat with one another as they wait for a signal for their practice to begin. Finally, club president Aaron Scheidies strides out of the men's locker room.
"Everybody into the pool!" he announces with a grin, and water immediately is sent splashing in every direction as he and his teammates dive into the lap lanes to begin warming up.
The air in the pool room is muggy, and the training is hard.
When the swimmers stop to catch their breath and sip from sports bottles, Scheidies doles out words of encouragement and reminds the team to make goals for themselves before sending them back down the lanes for another drill.
Scheidies is no stranger to goals himself. A kinesiology senior with a 4.0 grade-point average, he spends every day balancing school, work and a social life with running, swimming or bicycling practice to make himself a better triathlete.
Competitions have him traveling to Malibu, Mexico and elsewhere across the globe several times a year, where he often finishes in the top 25 out of thousands of contestants.
The fact that he is legally blind doesn't get in his way, either.
Born with a disease that has deteriorated his central sight to leave only some peripheral vision, Scheidies spends every day making and reaching goals he sets for himself.
"Basically, triathlons have changed my life," he said. "It's let me meet new people and go places - it's changed me as a person."
Life
On Thursday evening, Scheidies took part in a little "March Madness" with friends from the Triathlon Club as they gathered to watch the MSU men's basketball team take on Nevada.
"I'm a sports fanatic. I don't watch hardly anything but sports," he said.
Spending quality time with his friends from the club is a priority for Scheidies, whose hectic schedule often prevents him from doing so.
"If I had more time, I'd hang out with my friends more," he said.
His days begin early, with breakfast eaten on the run as he heads to morning classes. Homework, phone calls and visits must be accomplished between classes, because despite what each day brings, everything always comes back to his No. 1 priority - triathlons.
As Triathlon Club president for the second year in a row, Scheidies is responsible for many external responsibilities, such as planning practices, calling race organizers and securing sponsors.
"We don't have a coach, but if we did, he'd be the equivalent," club member Nick Richer said of Scheidies. "He pushes us."
Vision
At the Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities, Scheidies holds his face inches from a computer screen as he checks e-mails and reads Internet articles by using a program that enlarges text.
"Studying takes me longer," he said. "I get my books on tape and I have personal readers."
Scheidies was born with a form of macular degeneration known as Stargardt's disease. It is a genetic mutation that prohibits proteins from being delivered to the macula - the area at the back of the eye that focuses on fine details.
This protein deprivation eventually causes a loss of central vision.
Stargardt's affects about 25,000 Americans, with onset usually occurring between the ages of 6 and 20.
"I've been to every doctor in Michigan," he said. "I don't like going to eye doctors anymore."
It took five years for Scheidies to be diagnosed with Stargardt's after he began having vision difficulties in second and third grades.
"My teachers at school would notice I wasn't seeing stuff on the chalkboard," he said. "Obviously, they just thought I needed glasses, or else they thought I was playing around, that I could see."
The period of the "unknown," of not being able to find an answer to his vision problem, was a difficult time for Scheidies and his family.
"It was pretty stressful," said Michael Scheidies, Aaron's father. "Some doctors thought he was just trying to get attention from us."
Everything changed when Scheidies was referred to the University of Michigan's W.K. Kellogg Eye Center, where one of the world's leading experts on macular degeneration was able to make a diagnosis.
While the diagnosis was a relief for his parents, Scheidies, a talented soccer player at the time, doubted his future as an athlete.
"I got depressed and was really hard on myself doing soccer," he said. "(My parents) saw that I was struggling, but they didn't know what to do."
Scheidies continued playing soccer for a few years, but as his vision decreased, so, too, did his confidence. He began to consider pursuing sports more focused on individuals.
"When I was tired of feeling down and depressed, I told my mom about it all," he said. "That was kind of the day that changed my life. I just stopped playing soccer and started running."
Athlete
When Scheidies speaks about his first ventures into the world of track and cross country, his face brightens noticeably.
"It kind of changed my attitude and it gave me something positive to look forward to," he said. Scheidies said he memorized cross-country courses to find obstacles such as rocks and roots.
In July 2002, Scheidies participated in a triathlon where he met Matt West, a fellow competitor who was equally matched to Scheidies in athletic capabilities. West was so impressed by Scheidies' abilities that he offered to be his guide.
"Being his guide at first was tough," West said. "Now, I'm able to see 10 steps ahead of us so I can always push him in the right direction. He's helped me take my triathlons to the next level."
At competitions, West runs and swims alongside Scheidies and rides in the front seat of a tandem bicycle, calling out turns and obstacles ahead.
The two have competed in about six triathlons together, with the most recent being the world championship in New Zealand in December. Scheidies took first place in the athletes-with-disabilities division.
"There's nothing like the feeling of standing on the podium with one of your best friends representing your country," West said.
About a year ago, Scheidies' wins caught the attention of Matt Miller, an athlete in California who founded a team of blind and visually impaired athletes called the C-Different Team. Miller invited Scheidies to be on the team.
"I've always been inspired by sports and what sports can do for people," Miller said. "It can really change people's lives."
This fall, Scheidies will compete with the C-Different Team in the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon, a grueling competition with a 2.4-mile ocean swim, a 112-mile bike race and a 26.2-mile run. Competitors have 17 hours to complete the course, but Scheidies' goal is to make it in 10 and a half hours.
Sitting in a local coffee shop, Scheidies leans back in his chair and reflects on his passion for triathlons.
"Since I started doing triathlons, that's when I started feeling better about myself," he says.
He pauses for a moment to think before he continues.
"I've made a point to let everyone know I'm not going into this for fame and glory," he said. "I'm going into it to make a difference and change people's attitudes.
"The point of it is kind of to change people's perspectives on people with disabilities and inspire other people - not necessarily just people with disabilities - to be more confident in what they can do."
