Lauren Ware was spent. The practice was unlike anything the Arizona Wildcats’ center had ever experienced before.
She wasn’t alone.
Ware’s teammates echoed her sentiments after the team played with and against the UA women’s wheelchair basketball team last month.
“It was a really cool experience to get to play and see how much different it is because it’s a lot harder than what we do for sure,” Ware said. “What stood out to me is the arm strength you would have to have. We were playing scrimmages and, yes, I was tired. The arm strength these girls must have to be able to wheel themselves around ... it was impressive to see.”
All Wildcats left the workout with new friends. Ware and her teammates plan on attending wheelchair basketball games at the UA Campus Recreation Center, and, in turn, the wheelchair athletes will go to games in McKale Center. It’s exactly what UA women’s basketball coach Adia Barnes and wheelchair women’s basketball coach Josie Aslakson wanted: new relationships.
The coaches first met at one of Barnes’ practices last season. Aslakson was in her first season with the Wildcats; the team would go on to finish ranked No. 5 nationally.
Aslakson called last month’s practice “an unforgettable opportunity for the athletes on our team to cross paths with the athletes on Adia’s team and share that bond of ‘We’re all student athletes here, we all are representing UA and training really hard and we’re both really good at what we do.’”
“I think it was really cool for Adia’s team to see that what we do is challenging for them when they hopped in the sports chairs,” Aslakson said. “It was really fun to watch because they were sort of struggling to push the chair and get to the ball at the same time. But you watch their games and they’re phenomenal athletes and they can chase any ball down normally. It was a good mutual respect that we gained for each other.”
Arizona center Lauren Ware said training with the UA's wheelchair basketball team was "a really cool experience." "What stood out to me is the arm strength you would have to have," she said "We were playing scrimmages and, yes, I was tired. The arm strength these girls must have to be able to wheel themselves around ... it was impressive to see."
Aslakson’s team gave Barnes’ team pointers on how to move the chair, what traveling is, how to dribble while you are pushing the chair, and how to play effective defense. Some players spun out of control, nearly flipped or were twirling in circles. Controlling her chair was Ware’s biggest learning curve.
“You get a rebound and you outlet (pass), it’s hard to catch up to the ball and try to stop and catch it,” Ware said.
On the other side of the court, it took a little while for the wheelchair players to shake off some nerves. After all, here they were playing with and against a team they follow closely.
The teams shook their respective nerves the more they played. UA freshman Kailyn Gilbert picked up on how the wheelchair team was a cohesive unit — and how well they communicated. That is something Gilbert will carry with her this season.
“Shout out to all the people on that team, because that’s really hard,” Gilbert said.
Another Wildcats freshman stood out for a defensive move: steals.
“Maya (Nnaji) had great hands,” Aslakson said. “There were times where it didn’t really matter if we were cruising past with speed. She would reach in and steal the ball. I think that that’s something that carried over from able-bodied (basketball) — just how aggressive her defense is, as far as being able to go for steals.”
Aslakson, who won a bronze medal at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo and in 2019 won an U25 World Championship, hopes the players’ new friendships shed a light on the adaptive sports program. Her goal is to host the Women’s Collegiate Nationals at McKale Center sometime in the next five years.
“Props to Adia and her team for wanting to bridge that gap because it means a lot to us as a sport that needs more recognition in order to grow,” Aslakson said. “For her to be able to share the platform that they already have is just an amazing help for us. I’ve expressed that to our team that this is a big starting point.”
