THERE ARE THINGS THAT HAPPEN ON THE COURT THAT DEFINITELY SHOULD TRANSLATE TO WHAT YOU DO IN YOUR EVERYDAY LIFE.” “I’ve learned so much about other people and about pushing your limits, teamwork [and] taking care of each other,” Maynard said. “I have been able to meet so many people that I wouldn’t have been able to if I hadn’t gone here and played basketball.” As much as the wheelchair basketball teams are like a family, they are also highly competitive and produce Paralympic Games-level talent. In the 2016 Paralympics, former and current students as well as a coach in the Alabama Adapted Athletics program made the trip to Rio to compete. Team USA’s women and men’s wheelchair basketball teams won the gold, which featured past Alabama student athletes Stephanie Wheeler, Mackenzie Soldan and Desi Miller on the women’s side and Jared Arambula for the men. Current Alabama
student Babsi Grossi won a silver medal in women’s wheelchair basketball while representing Germany. Many of the university’s other representatives in the Paralympics were on Team Canada’s women’s wheelchair basketball team, who came away from Rio with a fifth place finish. Coach Musselman said the members of the wheelchair basketball program who did not go to Rio met up to watch the Paralympics and have continued to work hard at the university while their teammates are abroad. “It’s nice to have that camaraderie,” Musselman said. “I’m a big believer that the bonding that you want to see occur on the court occurs off the court. Being able to have them bond off the court and away from bas-
ketball is only going to bring them closer.” The strong bond of the wheelchair basketball teams not only comes from hard work, but also from the adversity the athletes must overcome to play at the Division I level. The players and coaches deal with any given disability or setback with as much positivity as they can, using them as motivation to defy all odds. “[Wheelchair basketball] has taught me that there’s always a door that will open for you in life,” Bennett said. “[My disability] shut the door on able-bodied sports, but it opened a door to get a scholarship to college, to get a Paralympic opportunity when I’m older, to go overseas and play professionally. [Being disabled] opens up a lot more doors than you think it would.”
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