In the spring, Landon Sachs became the first athlete in Orange County high school history to play a tennis match in a wheelchair against able-bodied competition — and finished second in the USTA level 1 Junior National Wheelchair Championships in Rome, GA.

He is seventeen, his eyes bright and hair neatly coiffed. He’s found purpose, the San Juan Capistrano JSerra Catholic High School senior proudly wheeling the campus halls in his tennis uniform, a racket poking out of his backpack.

Landon’s still quiet, sometimes. But when asked what he wants people to know about him, he paused, then spoke.

“Not just some dude in a wheelchair,” he says.