The "Utah Wheelin' Jazz" Outing--

First of all...sorry that these pictures did not turn out the best. My camera is acting up!
The following team would be "The Utah Wheelin' Jazz". They are ranked 5th in the country as part of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association and for the first time, they've made it to the final four!
After my injury, a few of my therapists tried to get me to go play ball but I firmly would decline. "My baller day's are over and I have put that up on an untouchable shelf. Wheelchair ball is not true ball and I would never take it seriously or respect it as a game." Believe me, if I could take those words and thoughts back I would!
After you go through a life changing experience there are different emotions that you have to go through to recover. Each individual goes through them at different points and times in their life and they have to be ready for them in their own way. We all have our own ways of "mourning" and last year I was finally ready for a new "baller" experience.
I agreed to meet Mike Schlappi for one of their practices and told myself that I would at least go for 20 minutes so as to be polite. 2 hours later, I was still there! It is hard for me to properly express the thoughts that were going through my mind and the emotion that I was feeling. It was awesome and it put me in my place! It was then that I realized that wheelchair basketball is a completely different and separate game than "able-bodied" basketball. It has its own logic, maneuvers, strategies, offense, defense, etc, etc! Sorry to say it...but some of these guys are better athletes than some "able-bodied" athletes. One day when you are bored...go put a chair under a basketball hoop and take a shot and see how hard it really is. "You've got no hops" and you don't have the correct momentum! Not to mention the strength that you must have! Again...you just have to see it to fully understand what I am talking about!
I decided that I wanted to take the kids to one of their practices and let them check it out. It's all about knowledge and unless you have that knowledge, you can't really understand it. Even though my kids know that wheelchair "stuff" is normal for us, I want them to understand that wheelchair "stuff" is normal for everyone. It should be "no big deal" because I can guarantee that they will have "not so normal" things come up at some point in their lives! (sorry! I just get so passionate about this concept!)
The kids loved it and got a kick out of how they "crashed" into each other! (gotta see it to believe it) Carter sat by my side so intrigued, which made me happy, and Kindra, the chatter-box, ran up and down the side of the court and asked them a million questions at every break! Pretty funny actually!

I told Jeff that I would "commit" to borrowing one of his sport chairs and practice with the team one night. Oh yeah...the other thing that frustrates me is that I am the only girl! I mean...come on! I can't be the only one but whatever...I won't let that stop me! :)

If you go to ksl.com...search for "Utah Wheelin' Jazz basketball"... it will pull up an article that they did and you will be able to see a video of them actually playing :) I can also tell you when and where their practices are if you'd like to go check them out first hand!