Wheelchair basketball bringing people together, improving lives of players

Editor's Note: The following is part of a class project originally initiated in the classroom of Ball State University professor Adam Kuban in fall 2021. Kuban continued the project this spring semester, challenging his students to find sustainability efforts in the Muncie area and pitch their ideas to Ron Wilkins, interim editor of The Star Press, Journal & Courier and Palladium-Item. This spring, stories related to health care will be featured.

Muncie, Ind. — Dribble after dribble, shot after shot, make after make and miss after miss — the game of basketball can be grueling, and it isn’t every player’s first sporting love.

For player Rowen Walker, 19, a first-year student at Ball State University, it was far from it.

“Basketball was never my first choice when I was younger,” Walker said. “I was more of a runner.”

Walker was a cross-country runner in high school until the then-sophomore noticed severe numbness in their legs. Walker’s running career ended abruptly, as the numbness caused by an undiagnosed condition forced Walker to use forearm crutches to stay mobile. Despite the change in circumstances, Walker knew finding a path forward would take positive momentum.

“Coming to terms that I’m never going to be able to run like I used to can be very disheartening, but it did help finding a community here,” Walker said.

That community is the wheelchair basketball group, an organization run by the Alliance for Disability Awareness and the Student Government Association at Ball State that allows students with physical disabilities the chance to play basketball. The group meets every Monday at the Jo Ann Gora Student Recreation and Wellness Center to perfect their basketball skills and have a little fun.

Colleges across the country and right here in the Hoosier state have embraced the sport as well. Universities like Indiana and Purdue also have wheelchair basketball organizations — just like the one at Ball State — aimed to provide inclusivity and promote physical activity.

Wheelchair basketball even has its own national organization known as the NWBA, or National Wheelchair Basketball Association. According to the NWBA, they have more than 225 teams across the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, with co-ed athletes ranging in age from 5 all the way to 65. Two of those teams are in Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, Indiana.

A way to connect with others

For Walker and the group’s other players such as sophomore Faith Graves, 20, who lives with cerebral palsy, it isn’t just about the basketball; it’s all about the people.

“In communities like these, I’m able to connect more with people rather than other communities where I feel more of like an outcast,” Graves said. “In these kinds of communities, like wheelchair basketball, I feel like I fit in.”

Accepting communities, like the one provided by the wheelchair basketball group, are beyond important for individuals with disabilities.

According to a 2023 study by Mahboubeh Ghayour Najafabadi and Ardalan Shariat published in the “Journal of Exercise Rehabilitation,” the sport helps to relieve feelings of anxiety and depression while also creating and improving social skills and relationships for players with disabilities. Everyone wants to feel like they belong, and the organization provides that opportunity.

Wheelchair basketball is a chance to pursue a dream

While the social benefits of the sport are immense, for some students like first-year student Anna Good, 19, of West Lafayette, who also lives with cerebral palsy, the sport provides the opportunity of giving a lifelong dream a shot.

“I’ve always loved basketball, but it was always hard for me to play,” Good said. “Now that I’m here, I’m so happy to be playing the sport I could only watch. Even though I’m not that great at it, it still feels good to be able to play.”

The play itself has its benefits as well.

According to a 2023 study by Rebecca Ramsden and Rick Hayman published in the “International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health,” those who are physically disabled are twice as likely to be physically inactive compared to those without a physical disability. The study also shows the decrease in physical activity is largely due to the barriers caused by disability. Adaptive sports such as wheelchair basketball help break down those barriers and get everyone physically active.

The sport doesn’t just provide benefits for those who are disabled. The Student Government Association representative for the team, Ella Daughtery, appreciates the community the group has built and will even get in on the action from time to time.

“It’s a very welcoming community,” Daughtery said. “I know that if I’m just having a bad day, they won’t judge me. It’s opened me up to so many new people I didn’t think I’d ever meet. It makes you know that you’re not, in fact, alone here.”

Working together to improve skills

The team doesn’t play any competition and instead focuses on individual achievement. The group works hard at each and every practice to get better at the game, but at the end of the day for each participant, the basketball itself is purely secondary.

“No matter what, we’re encouraging of each other,” Walker said. “Some of us might not be able to make baskets, but we will sit there, cheer each other on and help each other out.”

The group plans to be back next school year as they look to provide a whole new group of Ball State students with the same sense of community they have already found on the court.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Wheelchair basketball improves quality of life, brings people together