Hey Portland Basketball Fans, Did you know there was a wheelchair basketball team here in Portland, the Wheelblazers? I'm here to tell you a little about the team. Given that you are all fanatics of the Blazers, I'm hoping you might have a similar interest in the wheelchair version of the team. I have been a long time lurker on this site, but have never actually posted until now. But I have enjoyed the site for years, and have a deep love for the Blazers and basketball in general. Anyway, back to the Wheelblazers. We are a team composed of 14 people with various levels of physical disabilities. We play in the National Wheelchair Basketball Association (http://www.nwba.org/). We mostly play in regional tournaments against teams like the Seattle Sonics, though we do have a couple of big travel tournaments to places like Las Vegas and Phoenix, where we play a broad range of teams from all over the country. Last year was our most successful season yet. We qualified and competed in the NWBA national championship tournament in Louisville, Kentucky. Only the top 24 teams in the nation for each division get an invite. It was the first year the Portland wheelchair team competed at nationals. This season is off to a good start. Much like the real Blazers, we are in a bit of a transition year. We said goodbye to a number of long-time members because of retirements, injuries, etc. So we reached out to the disabled community in search of new members, which has been an overwhelming success. The turnout has been so successful, we don't have enough basketball chairs for all of the players who have shown interest in the team. However, this is a good problem to have. We're very excited about the new group of players and think we have great prospects for this season and many seasons to come. But we need some help getting the word out about the team. Here's how you can help: 1) Social Media. Now that we are getting into a good groove with the team, we are turning more to promoting our cause. We will be updating the facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Wheelblazersbasketball/) and have also created a new twitter account. Please consider liking our facebook page and/or following us on twitter at @PDXWheelblazers. You'll be able to find out about upcoming tournaments and exhibitions, see photos/videos of the team in action, and learn more about wheelchair basketball and the disabled community. I'll also post team results in both places as well. 2) Tournaments/Exhibitions. Come check out the team. We play in tournaments about once a month, our first tournament is this weekend in Seattle. The January tournament will be here in Portland. I'll post more info about that when it is finalized. We're planning on doing some exhibition games as well. Last year we did a halftime show at a Blazers game and played an exhibition at Warner Pacific College against their men's team. We're currently working on some similar events for this year. 3) Giving Tuesday. Adaptive Sports Northwest, our host/sponsor organization is running a "Giving Tuesday" campaign. The proceeds from this effort will go directly to buying new basketball chairs for the Wheelblazers and new rugby chairs for the Portland Pounders quad rugby team. If you would like to support the cause, go to our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Wheelblazersbasketball/. There is a post there with more information about the Giving Tuesday effort. Please consider sharing the post to help get the word out. If you want any more information on the team or any of the team events, have ideas on improving/promoting the team's new social media efforts, or would like to get involved with the team, feel free to contact me on the facebook page, on twitter, or here in the messages. Thanks for your consideration and Go Blazers!
Thanks for the kind words, it was my pleasure. Hope you decide to check us out on FB or Twitter! Help spread the word...
Hey Rockstar! Great post and I had no idea about the team or tournament..glad to see it and good luck with the new season! If you can post any video links to the games I'd certainly check them out! Go Wheelblazers! Brian Wheeler should be informed as well...just makes sense. Wheels should know about the Wheelblazers!
Yes, to be a player on the team you have to have some type of permanent disability. We have a wide range of injury levels on the Wheelblazers. There is a classification system based on the amount of function you have. Each player is assigned a point value on that basis. One of our players got his legged damaged pretty extensively by an IED in Afghanistan, but he still has a lot of function in the leg and is otherwise able-bodied. But because his injury prevents him from ever really playing stand-up ball he can play with us. Since he has some much function remaining, he is a Class 4.5, which is the highest point total for one player. Then there are players like myself. My dumb ass got paralyzed in a snowboarding accident which clipped my spinal cord at the T-4 level. So I don't really have any function below my pecs. I am a Class 1. Each team can have no more than 15 points on the floor at any one time. If you want to find out more about the specific classification criteria, you can find that info on the NWBA website (NWBA.org).
Good call on the Wheels connection. Does anybody have a way of contacting him? I'll see if I can make a connection on Twitter. It would be nice to have an advocate from within the Blazers org.
...awesome stuff! Does the team sell t-shirts or other swag? If not, then I'd love to help (I did some contract work for the Miami Heat Wheels' website).
We're actually looking at a couple of opportunities along those lines. Unfortunately, our budget got cut in half because one of our two main sponsors backed out at the last minute, so any work would have to be on a pro bono basis. But if you are looking for some volunteer work, I'd be excited to talk to you. Our first tournament is this weekend in Seattle, so working pretty hard on the logistics for that, but will have more time to chat next week. Wish us luck. Either way, thanks for the interest! Go Blazers (wheel and otherwise)!
