UA Wheelchair Basketball Players Heading to Beijing Games

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Seven players from The University of Alabama Wheelchair Athletics program are going to Beijing to play in the 2008 Paralympic Games in September.

Three UA players were named to the U.S. Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Team and four players were named to the Canadian National Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Team. The players are training this summer with the teams at sites across the United States, Canada and Europe in preparation for the Paralympic Games.

Stephanie Wheeler of Norlina, N.C., Mary Allison Milford of Magnolia, Ark., and Alana Nichols of Farmington, N.M., were named to the U.S. National Wheelchair Basketball Team.

Canadians Katie Harnock of Toronto, Tara Feser of Edmonton, Cindy Ouellet of Quebec City and Janet McLachlan of Vancouver were named to the Canadian National Wheelchair Basketball Team.

Wheeler, a UA graduate student, was a member of the U.S. team that took the gold medal at the Athens Paralympic Games in 2004. Nichols, who will graduate this summer, and Milford, a UA senior, played on the team that won the gold medal at the Pan American Games last summer in Brazil.

Feser, Harnock, Ouellet and McLachlan played for the Canadian team that won the silver medal at the Pan American Games last summer. They will be competing in the Paralympic Games for the first time.

Harnock will be playing her second season at UA this fall, while Feser, Ouellet and McLachlan will play their first season with the Crimson Tide.

For more information about UA Wheelchair Athletics go to www.uads.ua.edu.

For more information about the Canadian National Team visit www.cwba.ca and for more information about the U.S. National Team go online to www.paralympics.teamusa.org.