The basketball courts at the Dedman Center are not only being treaded on by Nikes and Reeboks anymore. National Wheelchair Basketball Association players from the Dallas Wheelchair Mavericks have been practicing at the Dedman Center for Lifetime Sports several days a week, which has helped bring them to the No. 1 position in their division.
One might be surprised to find that a wheelchair isn’t a requirement to participate in this adaptive sports program.
Founded in 1948, the NWBA is made up of more than 180 teams in 22 conferences, with more than 2,000 athletes competing in male, female, intercollegiate and youth leagues.
The men’s Division II is comprised of 47 teams from cities across the country and is the largest division in the NWBA. Division II NWBA teams play with the same rules as NCAA Division I basketball.
Currently the division II Dallas Wheelchair Mavericks (supported by the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks) are at the top of their division.
“We’re No. 1 – we have a really good team,” said Francis Key, a first-year law student at SMU and a member of the Mavericks. “Everyone pretty much just wants to play, like most guys do,” said Key of his teammates. “A lot of the guys have been playing since they were little kids. One of the guys on our team is the coach of a local women’s team, and another is the coach of a junior team in Dallas.”
Key says that one of the biggest misconceptions about the sport is that one has to be confined to a wheelchair in order to participate; however, the only requirement is that they have a permanent physical disability.
“People are surprised to find that there are guys on our team that can walk. Maybe they have a limp, we have amputees, some people with polio,” said Key.
“We have some really high-quality players, and it’s fun playing against some really good teams,” said Key, who lost the use of his legs in August 1994 during an automobile accident.
Key was a very competitive athlete in high school before his accident and says he was looking for “someway I could get out there and compete. When you have that competitive energy, you need an outlet to express it in.”
The Mavericks will have their chance to play against some strong opponents this weekend at a tournament in Arkansas.
“Sometimes [at a tournament] we’ll play four to five games in one day; it’s a lot of fun,” said Key, who believes that at this weekend’s tournament, the team, “will do really well.”
The Mavericks travel about seven or eight times per year to play in tournaments in locations such as Philadelphia, New York and Charlotte, but not all members of the team can travel due to expenses. The Dallas Wheelchair Mavericks’ website reports that the costs to support a team can exceed $100,000.
“I think it would be great if the school started a team. I’d be pro anything that develops more adaptive sports teams, but it’s a real struggle getting something like that going, they can really make you fight sometimes. It takes some serious money,” said Key.
There are currently nine intercollegiate wheelchair basketball teams across the country; however, the possibility of a team at SMU seems to be a speck off in the distant future.
“I really doubt it,” says Claire Schmitt, the associate director for SMU athletics media relations, of the possibility of the addition of a team at SMU. “A female sport would be added, if anything. The [C-USA] conference would add an NCAA-sponsored sport and that is probably the only place it would be going,” said Schmitt.
“Anything that would promote adaptive sports would be very helpful to anyone that has any sort of disability. It helps with self-efficacy and getting people to be more confident. It would have so many benefits and would be really significant,” said Key.
Nevertheless, he stresses that the SMU recreational department has been very helpful in lending its facilities to the Mavericks.
He says, “We don’t generally get to practice in gyms that are this nice,” and that SMU has been expedient in making changes to accommodate their players needs by adding handicapped parking spaces and ramps. “So far I’m pleased with their response,” said Key.
The Dallas Wheelchair Mavericks hold official practice at the Dedman Center on Tuesday evenings and Saturday afternoons.
Anyone wanting further information can contact Key at [email protected].
