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Alice Hincker wondered why her 10-year-old son couldn't stop his neck from twitching.

"It must have been stiff from that time he fell during that ski trip," she thought.

Mike Hincker noticed that his youngest boy continually seemed to be clearing his throat and making squeaking noises.

"He's got sinuses," he figured.

Little League baseball coach Roy Lower couldn't understand why the kid couldn't stop looking away and blinking his eyes in the batter's box.

"He's going to turn his head with a pitch on the way," he assumed.

For the life of him, little Chris Hincker couldn't figure out why he always raised his heel and tapped his toe on the ground as if his shoes were a few sizes too big.

"Is something wrong with me?" he wondered.

Hincker has Tourette syndrome, a neurological disorder characterized by repeated involuntary, rapid movements or vocal sounds -- symptoms that can range from mild to severe.

A twitch of the neck, a persistent noise coming from the throat, a compulsive urge to repeat an activity, repeated blinking ... the first pediatrician the Hinckers took Chris to immediately recognized the signs of and spelled out an unofficial diagnosis.

T-O-U-R-E-T-T-E.

Scary to a 10-year-old? Sure. Big problem? No.

"We had never heard of Tourette's," Chris Hincker said. "When I realized it was some kind of condition or disability, that label was a little bit frightening. But for me it was never that big of a deal.

"It wasn't causing me any pain or anything. I always knew in the back of my mind, 'Wait a minute. I'm still playing sports. I can still do everything I want to do. I blink a lot more than I should, but it doesn't really bug me.' "

Hincker excelled in youth baseball and basketball, but as a somewhat undersized pre-teen, he drifted toward another sport -- tennis.

Since then, Hincker has overcome Tourette and most of his opponents. The Patrick Henry senior helped the Patriots to the Group AAA championship in 2004 as a freshman, and last year he reached the state doubles semifinals with teammate Bo Edwards and also reached the Group AAA singles quarterfinals.

Hincker, who once had a national ranking of No. 74 in boys' 14-and-under singles, recently accepted a partial scholarship to play tennis at the University of Delaware.

Also an outstanding student, Hincker has yet to encounter a barrier caused by Tourette.

OK, maybe one. "I suck at staring contests," he said.

Healthful humor

If laughter is the best medicine, then Hincker has the antidote for a disorder first assessed in 1885 by a French physician named Georges Gilles de la Tourette.

Hincker's sense of humor is born from a healthy dose of self-confidence and the realization that his symptoms are mild.

Frequently, the mention of Tourette evokes an image of extreme verbal tics called coprolalia which result in the "involuntary use of obscene or socially inappropriate words and phrases," according to the Tourette Syndrome Association, Inc.

"A lot of people know about the kind of Tourette's where you curse uncontrollably," Hincker said. "That's what they think of. If we're fooling around and some kid says, 'Why do you do that?' I'll say, 'I have Tourette's.' They'll say, 'No you don't. That's where you curse.' "

Hincker feels fortunate he doesn't have verbal symptoms, particularly in a sport such as tennis when keen-eared chair umpires could default a player in a heartbeat for bad language.

"If I ever really do lose my cool on the tennis court, maybe I'll have that kind all the sudden," he laughed.

Hincker said the pace of tennis helps allow him to deal with his Tourette. The 5-foot-7, 145-pound right-hander blasts precise groundstrokes off both wings and moves athletically. Only in between points do you notice the neck twitch and the eyes roll.

"One of the good things about playing tennis, with all the little breaks between points, I can play the points then do my little tics in between," Hincker said. "I'd say it's crucial.

"One of the good things is that for a certain period of time you can control it. If you said right now, 'Stop,' I would be able to stop for a couple minutes or maybe longer. But it's sort of a two-edged sword. If you try to stop, you can for a certain amount of time. But it's almost like you're saving up. When the time comes for you to do it again, it's more frequent.

"Some kids have it really, really bad. No matter how hard they try, they can control it for mere seconds."

Hincker's mother said the family never sought medical help once they received the initial diagnosis.

"You can't formally diagnose it until they've formally documented it for a year," Alice Hincker said. "We had to go back within a year and we just never went back."

Walking examples

Several athletes have enjoyed successful professional careers despite Tourette.

The most notable is former NBA star Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf -- known as Chris Jackson when he played at LSU. Jim Eisenreich overcame Tourette to have a lengthy major-league baseball career. Current NASCAR Busch Series driver Steve Wallace also has the disorder.

Hincker has very little knowledge of those success stories, however.

"I've never really felt the need to identify with someone like that," Hincker said.

"I've never needed that crutch, so to speak."

Like many youngsters, Hincker had his own dreams of being a professional athlete. Home schooled as an eighth-grader, he trained on the tennis courts for hours and traveled to compete in regional and national events. Hincker hooked up with Roanoke teaching pro Mike Johnson and quickly started climbing the rankings.

However, a series of injuries set Hincker back, keeping him off the courts for nearly a year before he played at PH as a freshman. He gave home schooling another try as a 10th-grader, but more injuries changed Hincker's long-range focus.

"I don't look at my tennis as ever able to go to the pro tour," he said. "If you're not already there, the older you get every day your chances are going down. I see college tennis as being something good for me. I'm looking at it as even if I don't make a career out of it, I'll make a career along with it."

Johnson watched Hincker's career take a similar track to that of his son, Brandon, who held a high national junior ranking before leaving the national scene.

Brandon Johnson starred for four years at Radford University and is now a graduate assistant at Averett.

"Chris always asked me, "If Brandon couldn't make it, what are my chances?' " Johnson said.

"There's a sign that says, 'The race doesn't always go to the swiftest but to the one that keeps on running.

"He could play higher than [Delaware]. I talked to him about going to prep school, but he wants to get started on his college academics."

Hincker's career ambition is to become an orthodontist. He has navigated through PH's curriculum without receiving any special dispensation for Tourette. Part of Hincker's tuition at Delaware will be covered by one of the university's merit scholarships.

"What really sometimes stuns us is his ability academically, because it takes him awhile to read," Mike Hincker said.

Moreover, the family never pursued any medical treatment.

"It was suggested to us by some people there were some medications we could put him on," Mike Hincker said. "We just ruled that out."

"There were side effects like listlessness," Alice Hincker said. "One day we looked at each other and thought, 'What are we doing here? We're talking about putting our kid on medication so he can play better Little League?' "

The proper focus

Hincker never has felt the need to mask his Tourette.

"All of my close friends know that I have it," he said. "It's not something that people pick up on immediately, and if they do they think it's something I do that's quirky.

"I've never had it actually diagnosed. I didn't want that red flag in my file, in case I wanted to do anything with the military or anything along those lines. Obviously it carries the name for anyone that's familiar with it. But I don't think it's really popular enough to have that many misconceptions."

Hincker took a senior English class last year at PH in which one assignment was a 20-minute speech. He chose Tourette for his topic and part of the project included interviewing his peers about the disorder.

"I interviewed all these kids and asked them what Tourette was. I think one of them knew what it was," he said. "I got responses like, 'Isn't that where it burns when you pee?' I said, 'Oh, man.' "

Hincker did use the speech to achieve several goals.

"It generated pretty much the reaction I was expecting," he said.

"At first everybody was kind of somber about it. It achieved what I wanted to, which was just to spread awareness about it.

"It was good for me, just to look at all that information and do some more research. They're making some advancements. I'm looking forward as I get older to maybe doing some work in that area. I'm not any pro athlete or anything, but for someone that is looking for somebody to identify with, maybe I could be a good one."