The Ohio High School Athletic Association will add eight wheelch - 21 News Now, More Local News for Youngstown, Ohio -

CORTLAND, Ohio - Fifteen-year-old Jenna Fesemyer of Ravenna loves sports.

She plays golf, she's played basketball and now she's getting a chance to compete in track thanks to the Ohio Association of Track and Cross Country coaches, who pushed the Ohio High School Athletic Association to add wheelchair events to the state meet.

"I wanted to give myself another opportunity and this is an opportunity where I can take and I can run with it since it is new. So that is what I decided to do, just take this opportunity and try and go to the state track meet in 2013," Jenna said.

Jenna, and other athletes like her, will be able to compete in four different events this spring; the 100, 200 and 400 meter races and the shot put. Athletes will have to qualify. The top eight males and the top eight females will advance to the state tournament.

"Pretty much every coach you talk to makes the comment that, oh if I had this five years ago or six years ago I had a kid, I had a kid. So we have all been there and it was kind of more of the attitude and reaction was more of it is about time," said Dave Kirk with the Ohio Association of Track and Cross Country coaches.

Kirk says the decision to include these four events could potentially add between 6,000 and 8,000 Ohio high school students who have been unable to participate in the past.

"Kids that are successful out here, their drive, their work ethic the character issues that they learn out here on the track or the football field or wherever, those do carry over in to life and into their work," Kirk said.

"I believe this is just opening a bunch of doors, not just for me but for everyone else. Just to give everyone a little more confidence and a little more boost that they may need," Jenna said.

Ohio is the 15th state to add wheelchair track and field events. Iowa was the first back in 1990.