Warhawks win wheelchair national basketball championship
Released: March 18, 2003
The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater wheelchair basketball team captured the Intercollegiate Division National Basketball Championship in dramatic fashion on a buzzer beating shot that defeated the University of Texas-Arlington, 61-59, on Saturday, March 15.
This marks the second consecutive year that UW-Whitewater has won a collegiate national championship in wheelchair basketball and the fourth overall in the program’s history.
With 3.7 seconds remaining in regulation and the score tied 59-59, the Warhawks inbounded the ball to junior guard Jeremy Lade, the player of the year in the College Conference. Lade took a shot just inside the three-point line that banked off the backboard and into the basket as time expired giving the Warhawks the two-point victory. In a moment of euphoria, Lade was mobbed by his teammates on the court igniting the championship celebration.
“This was more exciting than anything I have ever been a part of,” Lade said. “Every kid dreams of hitting a basket to win a championship and my dream came true!”
“It was an awesome moment,” Warhawks head coach Tracy Chynoweth said. “No one works harder in athletics on this campus than Jeremy and to see him get this opportunity in this game was so appropriate.”
UW-Whitewater and Texas-Arlington have developed quite a rivalry this season. They split a total of six games played during the year before meeting for the decisive seventh game and the national championship on the line. Chynoweth says his team was up for the challenge of winning the game in one of the most pressure-packed situations in sports. The Warhawks used their experience, having already played two games during the regular season that were decided in the final seconds.
“If we didn’t go through those experiences earlier in the season, I’m not sure we would have won the title,” Chynoweth said. “During the timeout to set up the game-winning shot we all just looked at each other in the eye and said ‘Here we go, we know what
to do,’ they were all very composed and calm.”
On the final shot, Lade was thinking about the fundamentals. “I just thought ‘Keep it straight,’” he said. “Then I heard the buzzer sound right after I let go of the ball and before it fell through the basket.”
UW-Whitewater was the tournament’s number-one seed, gaining a bye in the quarterfinals and defeating Oklahoma State 86-39 in the semifinals. The Warhawks set lofty goals for this season a year ago after capturing the Men’s Open Division II title. The team decided to move up to the highest level of competition at the intercollegiate level. Chynoweth says it was a risk worth taking.
“We had a tremendous amount of pressure because we were the No. 1 team, we were hosting the tournament and the amount of pressure we put on ourselves from last year,” Chynoweth said. “But our team was loose, had fun and know we accomplished a very difficult task.”
For Lade and his teammates, having the opportunity to compete in sports and accomplishing what they have over the last two years will significantly impact them for the rest of their lives. Many of these athletes were born with spina bifida or permanently injured in an accident. Yet, they have persevered with the hope of living a life with opportunities in sports equal to any other athlete.
“Wheelchair basketball has opened up so many opportunities and helped me develop into the person that I am today,” Lade said. “I can’t imagine where I would be without it.”
- Craig Coshun,npa@uww.edu
