Jul
14
WHEELING FOR RESPECT/PART I
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The U-of-I women’s wheelchair basketball team is one of the most accomplished yet unrecognized programs on campus. The team has just won its second straight national championship this year but has received little coverage of this achievement. Today in Part One of his special report “Wheeling for Respect,” reporter Chris Maynard tells you about the women’s team’s accomplishments and struggles to get support from the University.
This year’s national championship title is the eleventh national championship for the U-of-I women’s wheelchair basketball program during its 27-year existence.
Freshman women’s player Sarah Castle says the U-of-I is the school to go to for wheelchair basketball.
(“Everyone who’s a . . . . most wheelchair sports”) 00:00:07
[Everyone who’s a junior in wheelchair athletics knows about U-of-I. And if you can get in here, this is where you want to come for most wheelchair sports.]
The U-of-I is also the birthplace of organized wheelchair basketball in the United States. The men’s program was created after World War Two to provide disabled veterans with physical opportunities in sport. The women’s program was created in 1976. Ten of the 12 women selected to the recent U-S Women’s National Team are current or former members of the program.
Despite this tradition, the women’s wheelchair basketball team has struggled to get support on campus. The men’s and women’s wheelchair basketball teams are not a part of the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics like the men’s and women’s basketball teams. The wheelchair teams must thus rely on private donations for funding.
Coordinator for Campus Programs for the Division of Rehabilitation-Education Services Maureen Gilbert says women’s wheelchair basketball is merely called a varsity sport but does not receive the funding or resources of other varsity sports.
(“Well, certainly money . . . . the support goes”) 00:00:15
[Well, certainly money, um, would be a big help, you know, and practice facilities. We get jostled around because, you know, we’re, we’re considered a varsity sport in the sense of the word, the word varsity. We’re recognized as a varsity letter but that is as far as the support goes.]
The women’s wheelchair basketball team has struggled to gain exposure without this funding and its own gym. Head Coach Michael Frogley says this lack of exposure can also be attributed to the public’s perception of disabled people. Frogley says people don’t expect much from people with physical disabilities.
(“I think for . . . . expectations of them”) 00:00:13
[I think for a long time people have looked at individuals with physical disabilities in particular, um, with disabilities in general and we, uh, and we look at them as non, we don’t, anything we see them doing is great.We have really low expectations of them.]
Frogley believes this public perception has contributed to the development of few women’s collegiate wheelchair programs. The U-of-I and the University of Arizona are the only two universities with women’s wheelchair basketball teams. There are only eight women’s club teams in the U-S. The U-of-I women’s team must often play men’s collegiate and club teams to make up for the lack of women’s teams.
U-of-I women’s wheelchair basketball player Jennifer Warkins says women’s wheelchair basketball can get more exposure by ending these public perceptions of disabled athletes and increasing awareness about the sport.
(“We always want . . . . the disability world”) 00:00:10
[We always want to increase awareness about the sport because people have too many misconceptions about being inspirations or what not. And that’s like the most hated term in the disability, yeah, in the disability world.]
Warkins and Frogley say there are few differences between wheelchair basketball and regular basketball. Frogley says there is no double dribble in wheelchair basketball and that everything else such as the court dimensions and basket height is the same.
Warkins says there is not as much lateral movement in wheelchair basketball and that the game is as hard or even harder than able-bodied basketball.
Wheelchair basketball players are classified on a one to three point system. Class one players have a limited amount of functional muscle while class three players have more functional muscle in their legs. Some class three players are not confined to a wheelchair but are allowed to play if they have a physical disability. Teams are allowed to put a maximum of twelve points out on the floor at any time.
Wheelchair basketball chairs are very similar to regular wheelchairs with a few differences. Basketball chairs have a fifth wheel for support and have straps so players don’t fall out. The wheels of basketball chairs are also angled out farther for more quickness.
Warkins says it will take time for people to recognize wheelchair basketball as a sport and to develop more teams.
(“I think it’s . . . . a sport here”) 00:00:04
[I think it’s going to take a few athletic departments to say, ‘Hey, we have a sport here.’]
Warkins also believes it will take people graduating from schools with wheelchair basketball programs and going to other universities to start new teams.
In Champaign, I’m Chris Maynard reporting.
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WHEELING FOR RESPECT/PART TWO
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The U-of-I women’s wheelchair basketball team contains some of the top female wheelchair athletes in the world. And yet these women are more often viewed on campus as being disabled than being athletes. Today in Part Two of his special report “Wheeling for Respect” reporter Chris Maynard tells you about how some current members of the women’s wheelchair basketball team are dispelling perceptions that disabled people are just participants in sports and not athletes.
U-of-I freshman Sarah Castle is a two-sport athlete. She is a member of both the U-of-I women’s wheelchair basketball team and the U-S elite team for disabled swimming. She is up from six in the morning to 11 at night from October to March fulfilling her roles as a student and an athlete. She says her social life is less prevalent because her time is consumed by schoolwork and practice.
Castle says she accepts this trade-off because the hard work is very satisfying.
(“I definitely think . . . . I love it”) 00:00:22
I definitely think that academics and athletics have kind of taken over my life. You learn to accept that one part of your life is not going to seem as fulfilled or something as another. But in my mind, it’s fully compensated by national championships, and world teams, and all that incredible feeling and high level of academics. So, it’s very stressful at times but I think it, I fit pretty well into that mode. I don’t know many people could or would want to but I love it.]
Castle has fit in at the U-of-I as both a freshman player on the national champion women’s wheelchair basketball team and as a student away from her family in Colorado–while dealing with her disability at the same time. Castle suffers from acute transverse myelitis (my-eh-lite-iss). She says her condition is an immune system malfunction that damages the spinal cord by taking away the protein covering of her nerves. Castle has been in a wheelchair since she was 11.
Coordinator for Campus Programs for the Division of Rehabilitation-Education Services Maureen Gilbert says Castle’s dedication to two sports while staying in the classroom is amazing. Gilbert says disabled people like Castle are trying to get rid of public perceptions of these differences between wheelchair athletes and able-bodied athletes.
(“That’s what we’re . . . . have a disability”) 00:00:10
[That’s what we’re trying to dispel, the difference between a wheelchair athlete and an able-bodied athlete. There is no difference. They’re both athletes. You know, that’s what we want everyone to see. That they’re athletes and then they have a disability.]
U-of-I graduate student and second-year member of the women’s wheelchair basketball team Jennifer Warkins is dispelling another myth–that players have to be confined in wheelchairs to play the sport. Warkins suffers from ligament deficiency. She says her knee ligaments and A-C-L have kept tearing for unknown reasons despite four surgeries. Because her ligament deficiency is a physical disability–Warkins is able to play wheelchair basketball despite not using a wheelchair during everyday activities.
Warkins has played both wheelchair and able-bodied basketball. She says both are similar. She says wheelchair basketball is even more physically demanding because it emphasizes greater upper-body strength to shoot the ball. She says the women’s wheelchair basketball team plays five games in two days which is unheard of in able-bodied ball.
Warkins also challenges the belief that wheelchair basketball players are not as dedicated to their sport as able-bodied athletes. She says she did not have to go to graduate school for her field of sports management but did so out of her love for the sport. She also says many able-bodied athletes would not play their sport if they got as little recognition as the women’s wheelchair basketball team does.
(“You would never . . . . a national championship”) 00:00:15
[You would never see some of these able-bodied athletes stick around if they had the kind of support that we do. I mean you do all this work and you get no credit for it. You know, you know, who wants to win a national championship and have no, the D-I-A not even say ‘hey, they won a national championship.’]
Head Coach of the women’s wheelchair basketball team Michael Frogley says Warkins is one of the best female players in the world. Warkins has been named first team All-American at the women’s national tournament and is also a member of the U-S Women’s National team. Frogley says the women’s wheelchair basketball team gives U-of-I students a great opportunity to see some of the best players in the sport. He even compares the presence of his players to if Kobe Bryant was playing on the able-bodied men’s basketball team.
(“It’s a great . . . . the case here”) 00:00:21
[It’s a great opportunity, literally, for students on this campus to see some of the very best student-athletes in the world, some of the best athletes in the world in their sport. Uh, can you imagine if, I don’t know, if Kobe Bryant was playing on the men’s team, what would that, what would that mean to students here, to be able to go see Kobe? Well, that’s the case here.]
And yet the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics has not recognized the wheelchair basketball program with funding or resources as it does for the able-bodied men’s and women’s basketball teams. Coach Frogley says he plans to push for more exposure for the men’s and women’s wheelchair basketball teams with the hope of getting more support from students and the D-I-A in upcoming years.
In Champaign, Chris Maynard reporting.
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Tomorrow in the final part of his special report “Wheeling for Respect,” Chris will tell you about suggested methods to increase participation and support for wheelchair basketball on campus and in the U-S.
WHEELING FOR RESPECT/PART THREE
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The U-of-I women’s wheelchair basketball program meets the same academic requirements and practices as much as their able-bodied counterparts in the women’s basketball program. And yet the women’s wheelchair basketball team operates with about a quarter of the resources that the women’s basketball team has at its dispersal. Today in the final part of his special report “Wheeling for Respect” reporter Chris Maynard tells you about possible suggestions for generating more recognition and support for women’s wheelchair basketball on campus and in the U-S.
Former U-of-I women’s wheelchair basketball player and team captain Nipa (Nee-puh) Pandya (Pand-yuh) says the sport needs to be promoted and taught to not only the general public but to also more disabled people. She also says her collegiate playing experiences provided her with many opportunities and taught her valuable lessons about herself and life.
(“Um, let’s see . . . . life as well.”) 00:00:14
[Um, let’s see, I think it was a great experience. It gave me so much opportunity in traveling and meeting other disabled people. It also gave me overall confidence in anything I pursue in life. Basically, just the individual lessons I learned in basketball apply to life, like working together as a team and confidence.]
Pandya now teaches special education at a high school in the south suburbs of Chicago where she continues to promote and play wheelchair basketball. She is the head coach of a junior varsity wheelchair basketball team and is a member of the U-S Women’s National Team. She says women’s wheelchair basketball needs to be accepted and funded as a varsity status sport just like football and able-bodied basketball in order to develop more publicity on campus.
Current women’s wheelchair basketball player Jennifer Warkins says able-bodied people should be allowed to participate in women’s wheelchair basketball. She says countries like Canada and Australia have gone to this method–which shows in their competitive national teams. She also says this action would increase recognition and participation in the sport by allowing disabled people to play with their brothers and sisters like children do in able-bodied sports.
Warkins says it is sad that the U-of-I has a long history of people with disabilities and yet nobody knows about the women’s wheelchair basketball team. The Division of Intercollegiate Athletics does not provide the wheelchair basketball program with any funding as it does for such varsity sports as football and able-bodied men’s and women’s basketball. Men’s and women’s wheelchair basketball must survive on a limited budget from an endowment fund. Warkins says the women’s wheelchair basketball program does not receive enough support from the D-I-A.
(“Um, I would say . . . . It’s a disability”) 00:00:11
(Um, I would say right now we’re in a separate but equal situation. They think that you know, we’re equal to them, um, but we’re really, you know, like that Brown versus the Board of Educations, except it’s not a race thing. It’s a disability.)
Freshman women’s wheelchair basketball player Sarah Castle says the team can get more support by scrimmaging during halftime of an able-bodied men’s basketball game. She also says it is too time-consuming and difficult for men’s and women’s wheelchair basketball players to raise large amounts of money through fund-raising.
(“I mean, we . . . . 20-dollar parking spot”) 00:00:16
[I mean, we do nearly, we did nearly 30-thousand dollars of fundraising this year between the men’s team and the women’s team. And it’s, uh, it’s very time-consuming and whatnot and difficult to get people to buy a 25-dollar parking spot, you know, or a 20-dollar parking spot.]
Head Coach Michael Frogley says wheelchair athletes don’t have the time to fund-raise for the program or to even work to pay for their tuitions. Frogley says the wheelchair program can’t offer scholarships. He says he would like to at least see tuition coverage for his men’s and women’s players.
(“You know, uh, … to work full-time”) 00:00:14
[You know, uh, I’m not saying that we want, all full rides for our kids. But I’d tell you what I sure would like is enough money to cover their tuition. They can come up with the money for their room and board. They can work over the summer for that like other college students do. During the school year it’s difficult for them to work full-time.]
Assistant Coach Daniel Ferreira says the women’s wheelchair basketball team is the low man on the totem pole on campus. He says it would be great to get more University support and to have a stable gym to call home instead of having to use Huff Hall and IMPE (Im-Pee).
(“As from the . . . . back and forth”) 00:00:09
[“As from the University as a whole, it would be great to have any support, maybe any. Right now the plan is for Frog to jump between two gyms. Name another collegiate coach in the country who has to jump back and forth.”]
Director of the Division of Rehabilitation-Education Services Brad Hedrick says marketing or promoting the women’s team is unrealistic when IMPE (Im-Pee) can seat only 100-hundred people. He says he is talking to the University on how this lack of their own facility hinders the women’s wheelchair basketball program from developing a fan base and possibly bringing in revenue through marketing.
(“I mean you . . . . a market plan”) 00:00:08
[I mean you can tell people that we exist but you really have to have people in the gym. And if you don’t have a suitable facility to get them into the gym, then you’re missing a critical element in developing and implementing a market plan.]
Coordinator for Campus Programs for the Division of Rehabilitation-Education Services Maureen Gilbert says the main goal for the women’s wheelchair basketball team and other wheelchair programs is to get into the D-I-A. She says the women’s team must get recognition and use this marketability to make money before the D-I-A will support it with funding.
(“The wheelchair athletes . . . . the biggest issue”) 00:00:14
[“The wheelchair athletes are out there kind of paving their own way. And the more recognition they get, of course, the more money will come in. But for now, it’s not. It’s not there for them unless you get some rehab hospital or a clothing manufacturer to back a tournament or something. But typically, the money is always the biggest issue.”]
Gilbert says the women’s wheelchair basketball program will continue to push for improvement and recognition of the sport despite this lack of funding and support on campus.
In Champaign, I’m Chris Maynard reporting.
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Coach Frogley is currently working on a project with the Illinois High School Association that would bring more participation in the sport by recognizing wheelchair basketball as a scholastic sport throughout the state.
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