Paralympics Pt 3

Now, I wasn’t as impressive as Mr. Serio in my wheelchair basketball career (Which totaled about a year). I remember the first time I got into a basketball wheelchair. My dad had been a friend of Coach Bob Burnsworth for a long time and had tried to get my dad to play for his team for probably since he first found out that I had cerebral palsy. Here’s the thing about Bob: He got into a wreck about 20-30 years ago which took away most of the use of his legs. In between the time he lost most of the function in his legs and 2015 he became one of the most prominent National Wheelchair Basketball Association’s (NWBA) head coaches winning the Ed Owen Coach of the Year Award in April of 2014 which is the highest honor a head coach can receive in the NWBA. I didn’t know this at the time though. So, when I went to the local YMCA to sit in (pun intended) on one of Coach Burnsworth’s open practices. (this particular practice anyone, even able-bodied people, could get in a chair and try WB out for themselves) I wasn’t very good at it at first. Have you ever seen wheelchair basketball played? It’s rough, you have to push the wheelchair, dribble, and shoot basically all in 3 or 4 different motions. As I started to come to more practices and meet my teammates, I got hooked.