Bama Wheelchair Basketball Players Head to Amsterdam Gold Cup

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Four members of The University of Alabama Women’s Wheelchair Basketball team will be going to Amsterdam, Netherlands, July 8-15 to represent the United States and play in the Gold Cup Wheelchair Basketball World Championship.

Two current UA players and two future players for the Crimson Tide will be representing their respective countries at the Gold Cup Wheelchair Basketball World Championship.

Current UA students Stephanie Wheeler of Norlina, N.C., and Mary Allison Milford of Magnolia, Ark., will be playing for the U.S. national team along with Crimson Tide future student Alana Nichols of Farmington, N.M. Karla Tritten of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, another recent Alabama commitment, will be playing for the Canadian national team.

Wheeler and Milford have played for the UA Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Team the last two seasons and have also made the elite U.S. National Team that has competed in international qualifying tournaments in Colorado Springs, Colo., and the Roosevelt Cup in Warm Springs, Ga.

Nichols and Tritten have committed to attend UA in the fall and are expected to have an immediate impact on a UA squad that finished 5th last season in the women’s division of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association.

The U.S. national team will compete against teams from Australia, Germany, Mexico and Japan. Tournament pool play in the Gold Cup begins Sunday, July 9 with the U.S. team squaring off against the Netherlands, while the Canadians open with France.

The Gold Cup World Championship tournament is another step along the way to qualifying for the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing, China.

For more information about the Gold Cup Wheelchair Basketball World Championship go to www.goldcup2006.com.

For more information about UA Wheelchair Basketball or the Alabama Disability Sports program go to www.bama.ua.edu/~uads.