“Two years ago, I found out I was going to be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life. And now I’m going to the Paralympics,” reflects Syracuse University College of Law alumna Katie (Boumans) Verderber L’16. “It doesn’t seem possible.”
The former U.S. Army JAG Corps officer threw her first curling stone in 2024. Just 19 months later, she was named one of five athletes on Team USA’s mixed wheelchair curling team for the 2026 Milano Cortina Paralympic Winter Games.
Verderber’s odyssey—from Montana to Syracuse, Afghanistan to Italy—has been defined by abrupt turns and profound challenges. Through discipline, resilience and a steadfast support system, she’s transformed uncertainty into momentum—setting her sights on the world’s biggest stage in sport.
The Call to Syracuse
Katie Verderber L’16 (second from right) built lasting connections at the College of Law while developing the life skills that shaped her career in law, military service and sport.
In 2013, Verderber had already committed to a West Coast law school near her Montana home when an acceptance letter from Syracuse University arrived—and an unexpected piece of advice changed everything.
“My little brother was in fourth grade,” she recalls. “He said, ‘You love basketball. You should go to Syracuse because they have a great basketball team.’ And I kid you not, it just clicked.”
Just weeks before the semester began, she withdrew from her original school and headed east. “My mom, my stepdad and I packed up my Explorer and drove to Syracuse for orientation,” she says. “It was the first time I’d ever been there.”
At the College of Law, Verderber built connections that would last a lifetime. Beyond her classes, she worked at Campus West, served as a law clerk at Melvin & Melvin PLLC and as an editor for the Syracuse Journal of International Law and Commerce, where her own article was selected for publication. She also organized and played on intramural softball and basketball teams that built community among law students and competed at national tournaments.
Tested in Uniform
Verderber served as a U.S. Army JAG Corps officer, advising commanders in Afghanistan and later representing soldiers as a defense attorney at Fort Hood.
Entering a challenging legal market, Verderber attended a JAG Corps recruiting session at Syracuse. “It was a guaranteed four-year job,” she says. Commissioned in 2017, she served at Fort Hood, Texas, with the 1st Cavalry Division. Within a year, she transitioned to operational security law, deploying to Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 2019.
Verderber advised senior leaders on targeting decisions, which required her to be on the ground. “My commander didn’t want to make any key decisions without a lawyer right next to him,” she explains.
During one mission, Verderber injured her back, compressing her spine. Multiple surgeries followed, but her condition deteriorated. Even as her mobility declined, she continued serving—becoming a defense attorney at Fort Hood and representing more than 140 soldiers.
“I put everything into my clients,” she says. “And not into my health.”
Finding New Lines
After a life-changing injury, DREAM Adaptive introduced Verderber to adaptive sports, helping her regain independence and return to the outdoors.
After a prolonged medical retirement, Verderber returned to Montana in 2023. Weeks later, she lost all function from her belly button down—emergency surgery could not reverse the damage.
She spent three and a half months in rehabilitation, relearning how to navigate daily life. “If I live to be 80, that’s another 45 years like this,” she recalls thinking. “I didn’t know if I could do it.”
Her turning point came with DREAM Adaptive, a Montana-based nonprofit that introduces people with disabilities to outdoor recreation. Within days of leaving the hospital, she was sit-skiing down Whitefish Mountain—the same mountain where she had married her wife, Danielle, the summer before.
“It was full circle for Danielle and me,” Verderber reflects. “Six months ago, I was standing on top of the mountain, and now I’m sit-skiing down it. I don’t think I’d be here without DREAM Adaptive. They got me moving again.”
Reaching the World Stage
Verderber (far right) with her Team USA mixed wheelchair curling teammates, who will compete at the 2026 Milano Cortina Paralympic Winter Games.
In April 2024, Verderber attended a VA winter sports clinic in Aspen, Colorado, to downhill ski, but reluctantly tried curling as an alternate activity. A former national coach saw something in her first few throws and asked if she’d consider training seriously.
From that first stone, Verderber advanced with remarkable speed. Despite living in Montana, where dedicated curling ice doesn’t exist, she traveled constantly to Denver and Cape Cod to train. At national selection camp, she made it through the first round, then competed internationally in Switzerland in October 2025, helping the team earn second place.
By November’s final selection camp, she understood the odds. “I was the only one who’d never been on the national team,” she says. “I really wanted it, but I kept thinking, why would they pick me?”
When the roster was announced, she heard four names called. She was celebrating for them when a teammate placed a hand on her shoulder and said, “We did it. It’s us.” Only then did she realize her own name had been the fifth—and final—one called.
More Than the Games
Through wheelchair curling on the world stage, Verderber advocates for greater awareness of adaptive sports and hopes to one day start a nonprofit.
Today, Verderber balances private legal practice with near-constant training and travel. Syracuse’s alumni network has remained integral to her journey. One of her closest law school friends, Riley Christian L’16, helps coordinate media outreach through his entertainment and sports law firm, Artifex Athleta P.C.
“My focus isn’t sponsorships,” Verderber says. “It’s awareness—especially for adaptive sports and people with disabilities who don’t know what’s possible.”
Inspired by DREAM Adaptive, Verderber hopes to start a similar nonprofit in Montana. “That community changed my life in so many ways,” she says. “I know there are others out there like me—young and old—and it’s important to help them get out and try new things.”
When she competes in Italy, March 6-15, her family and a large contingent of friends—including Syracuse Law classmates and military colleagues—will travel to cheer her on. “I’ve got an army behind me,” she says. “They’re all going.”
For Verderber and her teammates, the Paralympic Games represent a chance to make history. “We’d love to medal,” she says. “It would be amazing to bring home the first U.S. medal in wheelchair curling.”
As she prepares to represent her country, Verderber reflects on the journey: from Syracuse Law to military service, from rehabilitation to international competition, from personal crisis to advocacy.
“I wore a uniform once,” she says. “Now I get to wear the U.S. flag again—not just for me, but for the community that lifted me up and for every person who can see what’s possible.”
