Two UA Students Named to National Wheelchair Basketball Team

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — University of Alabama students Stephanie Wheeler and Mary Allison Milford have been selected by U.S. National Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Team Head Coach Ron Likins as members of the 2005-2006 national team.

Wheeler, a North Carolina native, is a graduate student in the UA department of kinesiology specializing in adapted physical education. Wheeler, who has been playing wheelchair basketball for 12 years, has been on the national team since 2001 and attended the Paralympic games in Athens in 2004. Her future goals include competing in the World Championship in Amsterdam next summer and competing in the Paralympics in Bejing in 2008.

When asked about making the national team, Wheeler said, “It is such an honor and a privilege to be chosen, you have to make the most of the opportunity because you never know if it will happen again.”

Milford, from Magnolia, Ark., is a sophomore in the Honors College majoring in business. She has been playing wheelchair basketball competitively for nine years and hopes to one day establish her own disabled sports foundation.

“This has been my dream for so many years, and frankly I didn’t expect to achieve it this soon” said Milford. “Making the team was extra special because my Alabama teammate Stephanie Wheeler also made the team.”

Because this is Milford’s first time on the national team, she looks to Wheeler for advice and guidance and credits her for being a positive role model in her life. “I was so glad to share my achievement with her,” said Milford. “I can’t wait to represent my country and my school.”

In the first step toward the Paralympic Games that will be held in Beijing, China, in 2008 the newly selected Women’s National Team will represent the United States by playing in a qualifying tournament at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. on Dec. 1-4. Over 40 women were nominated to attend try-outs at the Lakeshore Olympic Training Center in Birmingham. From the nominations 24 players were invited to try out for the team and only 12 were selected.

Both Wheeler and Milford play for The Crimson Tide and the team enters their third season ranked 4th in the Women’s Division of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association. The Crimson Tide plays against women’s teams from across the country including the University of Illinois and the University of Arizona in order to qualify for the Women’s National Wheelchair tournament in Birmingham on March 2-5.

For more information about the Crimson Tide wheelchair basketball team contact Brent Hardin at 205/348-5109 or Margaret Stran at 205/348-7991. The Crimson Tide’s schedule is listed on their team website at www.bama.ua.edu/~uads.