University of Illinois Wheelchair Basketball
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The University of Illinois Wheelchair Basketball teams are the oldest teams of their kind in the United States.


History

In 1948 the
University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...
was the first college in the United States to establish a collegiate
wheelchair basketball Wheelchair basketball is basketball played by people with varying physical disabilities that disqualify them from playing a non-disabled sport. These include spina bifida, birth defects, cerebral palsy, paralysis due to accident, amputations (of ...
team, the University of Illinois Gizz Kids. Under the management and coaching of Dr. Timothy Nugent the U of I wheelchair basketball team held the first National Wheelchair Basketball Tournament in April 1949. Later in 1970, the University of Illinois formed the Ms. Kids, the first women’s wheelchair basketball team in country. After twenty nine years of wheelchair basketball, the university hosted the First Intercollegiate Wheelchair Basketball Tournament. Since then, the University of Illinois has hosted a number of Intercollegiate Wheelchair Basketball Tournaments claiming a total of 29 national championships between the men and women’s teams with the men holding 15 titles and the women 14 respectively. Today, the men’s team is led by head coach Matt Buchi, and the women’s head coach Stephanie Wheeler.


Camps

The University of Illinois annually hosts two camps in the summer. Premier Camp is a wheelchair basketball skills camp that is designed for experienced wheelchair basketball athletes who are looking to enhance their abilities on the court as they transition from the Junior Wheelchair Basketball Division into the Intercollegiate Wheelchair Basketball Division. Individual Camp is for athletes who are looking to learn basic wheelchair basketball skills that are the fundamentals at every level of competition.


References


External links


Illinois Wheelchair Basketball
{{University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus Illinois Fighting Illini Wheelchair basketball teams 1948 establishments in Illinois Basketball teams established in 1948 Wheelchair basketball in the United States