Audio Clip at the Bottom of the Page
Part One
The University of Alabama is known for its championship athletic teams. Football, gymnastics, softball and so on; but there is another group of athletes on campus who are also champions, although they do not draw crowds like Coach Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide football team. They are the Rolling Tide and they are part of the University of Alabama’s Adapted Athletics program.
Most mornings at the recreation center on UA’s Tuscaloosa campus you can see a pick-up basketball game being played, and the squeak of shoes on the floor is commonplace. However, a few courts down players are gliding across the court silently on wheels. These are member of the University of Alabama’s wheelchair basketball teams. And what they lack in squeak, they make up for with loud crashes as chairs battle for position.
Cobi Crispin is an Australian player for the women’s team at UA. She says the game is a bit rougher than most expect, but for her, that is the best part.
“I absolutely love the aggression, it’s a non-contact sport but we smash into each other all the time and we’re always hitting the deck and it’s a lot of fun. I often get fouled out because I’m a bit aggressive, but it’s just me being passionate.”
When these wheelchair athletes take to the court, referee Maurice Sanders is in the middle of it all. He says there is a difference between contact in this sport versus stand-up basketball where the players run around.
“A lot of contact in wheelchair, you let it go, but able-bodied people you stop it. So you’ve got to determine if there is an advantage or disadvantage being gained or lost one way or the other to determine if there is a foul or not.”
U-A’s program has a far reach. Many players from all over the world come to play their college ball here. Crispin says college athletics aren’t as emphasized overseas as they are in the United States.
“It’s a real honor to play at the college level. It’s a unique experience just because we don’t really have anything like it in the rest of the world,” says Crispin. “There is a professional league in Europe and it’s pretty competitive, but to mix an education with a sport you play it’s something we don’t get in Australia at the level you guys do here so I’m pretty lucky.”
When she isn’t playing for the university, Crispin is one of many foreign players on the Rolling Tide who also play for their national teams back home. She is one of several paralympians competing on the world stage.
“I’ve been to two Paralympic games, Beijing and then London in 2012. We got a bronze medal in Beijing and a silver medal in London. Hopefully we’ll win the whole set in Rio and bring home the gold.”
The Adapted Athletics program at U-A began eleven years ago when current AA director Brent Hardin made his way to Tuscaloosa. He says he had support from the very beginning.
“Sometimes things are just meant to be and they just work out, I know that sounds kinda corny or cheesy but I really believe in that. When we started the program back in 2003 I came here with my wife and we went to faculty orientation and that is where we met Dr. Witt, it was his first year too.”
Dr. Robert Witt was president of the University of Alabama at the time. Hardin says Witt had some experience dealing with this type of sport before.
“He had been exposed to wheelchair athletics at the University of Texas at Arlington before he came here and he just got it right away and he wanted to support us right away. We didn’t have anything but an idea but he got behind it and really saw it as a bright light for the university.”
Hardin says even when Witt moved on to become chancellor of the University of Alabama system; he still has support from the higher ups like Dr. Judy Bonner.
Some of the players on Alabama’s teams have played basketball before and after injuries left them disabled. That includes Karolina Lingyte of Lithuania. She’s been playing wheelchair basketball for five years and the transition was hard at first.
“It is different because everything you do is with your hands plus you can stop people from getting to a different place where you can’t do that in stand-up basketball because they can move around you and with a chair,” says Karolina. “It’s a bigger space and it’s easier to keep people in the place you want them to be.”
She adds, it was the mechanics that took the most getting used to.
“You get into something new where you don’t have any idea how to do things, how things work, how it moves, how the chair moves, how everything is different, it was tough getting over that first bump.”
Players are given a ranking based on their physical abilities from 1.0 to 4.5. To keep things fair, teams are only allowed to have players with rankings totally twelve points on the court at a time.
Both men’s and women’s teams at the University of Alabama have won national titles, and both will be playing in the national collegiate tournament this week.
Part Two
This week, two unique sports teams from the University of Alabama are vying for a national championship. They’re the men’s and women’s wheelchair basketball teams, better known as the Rolling Tide. The university has a number of sports for disabled athletes and between games, these players have to stay in shape. That’s leading to a partnership between wheelchair athletes and a man known in the world of boxing as “The Bronze Bomber.”
When the University of Alabama’s wheelchair basketball players hit the court, they have to dribble and pass the ball to score points. This includes rolling their chairs up and down the court and turning on a dime. The sport takes upper body strength and that means conditioning.
This is where Skyy Boxing comes into play. The small gym in Northport has a boxing ring in the middle and the walls are covered with posters from big matches. Here we find Karolina Lingyte from the U-A’s women’s wheelchair basketball team. While working out on a heavy bag, she says it is not only a great way to stay in shape, but the gym’s atmosphere helps her as well...
“The people that are in here, the coaches and athletes who are self-motivated, and that’s what I think is most important thing to be successful is to be self-motivated and all the people who come here are here for themselves and to get better.”
Lingyte isn’t alone; Cindy Ouellet is one of Karolina’s teammates on the basketball court. The Canadian student says boxing is a great form of cross training for wheelchair athletes.
“Interval training is so good, especially for wheelchair athletes because it’s great for burning calories and getting a good sweat on.”
She says there is another reason…
“I love boxing because it’s really aggressive and I get to punch and get my angriness out a bit.”
She is also a fan of the atmosphere at Skyy Boxing, but for a different reason…
“You get children, you get people like Deontay, so you really get everything, you get sorority girls, you get baseball players, I just like it because everyone is included, it’s like a mini-home and everyone is a big family.” Ouellet says, “Everyone is going around the ring punching each other but there is no hard feelings after, it’s just training.”
The "Deontay" Cindy mentioned is Tuscaloosa native and world heavyweight contender Deontay Wilder. He took the bronze medal for boxing during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Wilder trains at Skyy Boxing and offers his advice to those who work out there…
“I work with all athletes, whether they’re wheelchair athletes, whether they’re kids, whether they’re deaf impaired, I work with all of them, this is my love.”
That help goes both ways; Karolina Lingyte is confined to a wheelchair due to an accident. She lost a leg, but her upper body strength is formidable. Wilder says she uses him as a punching bag to help him train for his upcoming fights.
“What I do is, I sit there, and let her use her technique, to wail into me every time. I push buttons, I like to push button and let her know it’s not getting to me, I may dance around, make a little move, but you know, at times it does sting, but I got to keep going.”
All of this training is under the watchful eye of Jay Deas. He’s the owner and head trainer at Skyy Boxing. He says the players working out at his gym was a collaboration with their basketball coach…
“Their coach came to me and they wanted to get an alternative workout for the wheelchair basketball players and we thought about it and came up with something beneficial to them and they came in and, they get after it.”
Deas says they did not have to change much from the typical workout…
“We do all the same things we do with the regular professional boxers or golden glove boxers, just without some of the things like jump rope, things they obviously can’t do but just about everything else, they do.”
He adds the mindset developed from boxing is just as important as the physical training for the basketball players…
“It is not an easy workout, it takes a lot out of you. You have to focus, even when you’re tired, you’ve got to put your punches in the right place,” says Deas, “same way with basketball, I’m sure if you’re in that chair the whole game, at the last few minutes of the game, it’s tough to make those shots if you’re not mentally and physically tough and prepared. Plus, it’s also a great stress relief for them.”
This brings up the question of whether wheelchair boxing might join basketball, rowing, golf and even tennis as a sport where disabled athletes can join in at the college level or the Paralympics. Cindy Ouellet says it’s a longshot, but possible…
“It may take a little while, because obviously for able bodied there aren’t that many boxers, especially female athletes, so it may take a while and someone to investigate it, maybe it’s going to be me and Karolina, we got a good start here.”
Speaking of the Paralympics, there are only five training centers for disabled athletes who want to go for the gold. One is in Birmingham, and APR's Pat Duggins will take us there tomorrow.
Part Three
Despite national championship victories for both the men’s and women’s teams, wheelchair basketball doesn’t attract the same crowds as Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide football team. However, a recent men’s match in Tuscaloosa between Alabama and the Orlando Magic team from Florida did have people in the stands. That includes Javalla Hardy of Tuscaloosa and her family.
“Actually, we went to the movie theater the other Monday night. And there were six of the players who were there at the movie theater, and they were as nice as they could be,” says Hardy. “So, we thought we’d come out and support them.”
Wheelchair basketball is a lot like conventional basketball. There’s dribbling, shooting, and the occasional foul. The Hardy’s had a good time, but fans of another wheelchair sport apparently look for something a little louder. Brian Kirkland is a championship player of wheelchair rugby. He says the first match for rookie audience members can be a little jarring.
“I can’t tell you many times someone comes into the gym, right when we’re starting a game and nobody’s hit each other yet,” says Kirkland. “And somebody hits, and I’ve seen them just about come out of their shoes, and go ‘oh, my god!’ “
Kirkland is a paralympian. He and members of Team USA brought home gold and bronze medals for wheelchair rugby from the Paralympic Games in Athens, Sydney, and Beijing. One of his team mates was Bob Lujano.
“One of things we love the spinal cord injury players to tell people is ‘what’s the worst that’s gonna happen? I’m going to break my neck….again?’ ”
Wheelchairs for rugby are similar to those for basketball. The wheels are angled in, and there’s no back rest. There’s one difference, however. Rugby chairs are armored with plenty of dents from all the banging that goes on. Both Lujano and Kirkland play in chairs. Lujano is a quadruple amputee. He lost his forearms and legs to a blood disease when he was young. Kirkland injured his neck competing in motocross. But, don’t call him disabled.
“People are not going to have to tie my shoes for me, and they’re not going to put my clothes on me,” says Kirkland. “I’m doing it. And I did it.”
That mindset is shared at the place where Lujano and Kirkland train. The Lakeshore Foundation is nestled in a wooded area near Samford University in Birmingham. The one thing you don’t hear staff members say here is…”you can’t do this.” Jeff Underwood is President and CEO at Lakeshore. He says the disabled patients usually aren’t the problem. It’s the people around them.
“They just don’t these folks to get hurt, again,” says Underwood. “So, they tend to do everything for them. And they start hearing this over, and over, and over again.”
Lakeshore takes in about four thousand people per year, ranging from disabled members of the military, and even disabled children. It’s also one of only five Paralympic training centers in the United States. It’s here that Brian Kirkland trained to win his Paralympic medals and five national championships for wheelchair rugby. He admits at some point, he may have to slow down.
“I’ve done about everything I’ve wanted to do in my career. I wanted to win a national championship…check! I wanted to win a Paralympic gold medal…check!”
He spends a lot of time at the Lakeshore Foundation, passing along what he’s learned for the next generation of paralympians dreaming of being on Team USA for the games in Rio in 2016. A celebration is planned at Lakeshore tomorrow in honor of the start of the Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.