The Ball State’s wheelchair basketball team played a scrimmage against IPFW tonight.
Sarah Sims, one of the students who helps run the team, said the scrimmage was to give the team more experience playing actual games.
“Our guys were interested in getting a feel for a real game, so we wanted to bring in some more players that really knew how to play,” she said.
Sims said wheelchair basketball is something relatively new to campus — there was a team about 20 years ago, but it came back three semesters ago.
The sport began in 1948 after World War II veterans started coming back from overseas, according to nwba.org. Since many of them were paralyzed, they tried ping pong, bowling and basketball. Currently, wheelchair basketball is the No. 1 wheelchair played sport.
While the players of the sport don’t have to use wheelchairs in everyday life, two of the players on the team do.
Emmy Kaiser, a graduate student who helped bring the team to Ball State, said she liked how they had mostly able-bodied students playing so they could see what their life is like. Kaiser is a top 20 U.S. Paralympic tennis player, as well.
“In the United States, [Paralympic athletes] are not seen as pro-athletes,” she said. “It’s good seeing guys our age seeing this side of it. I think this generation is more open to it. If we change them, who knows where we can get.”
For a longer story, read the Wednesday edition of The Ball State Daily News.
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