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Junior Nets shoot hoops, show heart
(by K. Darius Amos - February 05, 2008)
Photo by Christina Tullo
Kaitlyn's Komets took on the Junior Nets at Hackensack Middle School.
Willard, in fact, is one of several females mixed alongside a basketball roster laden with other teen-aged boys. The girls break down all stereotypes that exist, especially those that suggest a female can’t match up equally to a male.
But on this team, on this court, all stereotypes are extinguished, particularly the ones that suggest someone cannot overcome a disadvantage.
To Willard and her friends on the Junior Nets basketball team, they’ve been conquering labels all their lives. The biggest of those is one that implies that each of them is incapable of doing anything as physical as moving up and down a court for a game of hoops.
But that’s where the United Spinal Association and Hackensack Middle School come into play. The association last week stopped at HMS for the third annual Junior Nets Wheelchair Basketball Tournament, of which Willard was one of the competitors.
Each player filling a roster spot is strapped into a wheelchair for one of several reasons.
According to the National Wheelchair Basketball Association, each player in the league suffers from a severe leg disability or paralysis of the lower portion of the body. They are grouped into three classifications based on the nature of their disability.
The chairs all meet playing regulations – all seats must be no more than 21-inches from the floor, for example. Official rules state that the chair is considered part of the player and can cause infractions such as charging or blocking. If part of a wheel is out of bounds, the player is also considered that, as well.
In the first game of last week’s tournament, the Long Island Lightning’s Warner Quiroga demonstrated the physical nature of the wheelchair basketball game. Banging and slamming his wheelchair against opponents’ chairs, Quiroga on four different occasions in the first half against the Junior Nets hit the deck, body, chair and all.
To an onlooker, watching a player and wheelchair tilt and slam to the hardwood court is grimacing. And it’s just as difficult watching as the fallen athlete tries to erect himself back to his or her wheels.
But it’s all part of the physical portion of the game, the players insist. The game clock or the action doesn’t stop when a player and chair are upended – the player is corrected during the next dead ball.
Though some rules are modified to accommodate wheelchairs, the game is played with the same passion and heart that’s found on the professional, college and even high school courts.
The action even entices fan reaction – applause, cheers and even the occasional mocking. Some spectators, albeit family members, chanted “Air ball!” when Long Island’s Isiah Moore’s free throw attempt failed to make contact with the rim.
Last weekend’s tournament was the second United Spinal Association basketball tournament that Hackensack Middle School has hosted in recent months. HMS hosted the 13th Annual Al Youkamin Wheelchair Basketball Tournament last fall. That tournament was held in memory of Youkamin, a former River Edge and Hillsdale resident who spearheaded the development of wheelchair sports.
Youkamin died in August at the age of 82.
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