Bumper cars & basketball
What do bumper cars and basketball have in common? Nothing. Or at least I thought so until last week.
Brady was home for spring break and had plans to spend Saturday afternoon at SMSU watching wheelchair basketball as one of his friends from high school is an assistant coach.
Well, Mother Nature had other plans for his weekend, and it was decided Saturday morning was a better time to head back to the cities. When discussing it with his friend Brayden, we found out SMSU was actually playing Friday at noon and 3:30 p.m. as well.
After some discussion, and mom wanting to spend some time with the kids together, we knew that the noon game would not work for us — mainly because Ben and Natalie were in school and I needed Brady at work to help me fold and staple all the programs for the youth wrestling tournament in town. He loves coming home on break and working for mom.
Instead, we decided we could all meet up for the 3:30 p.m. game. After finishing our work, Brady and I headed to Marshall to grab Natalie and meet Ben at the game.
Going into the game, I had heard the wheelchair basketball was fun to watch. After taking in my first game, that is an understatement.
First off, talk about talented. No, they don’t have to dribble the ball as they go down the court. That was surprising to me. But they were dribbling once or twice as they pushed their chairs. They also passed across the court like they were tossing a ball to someone right next to them.
The number of times there was a fastbreak and the basketball was thrown down the court only for the teammate to catch up with it, grab it and toss it in for a layup was fantastic.
Secondly, I do not understand the fouls in wheelchair basketball. Yes, there were fouls called, several on the Mustangs. But there were also a lot of times chairs were crashing into each other without being called.
During one foul, two chairs collided so hard, a piece of the chair came off and rolled across the floor.
These players are tough. There is no backing down or complaining when there is a little bumping under the basket.
Overall, it was a fastpaced, high-energy basketball game that highlighted a lot of amazing physical strength. All four of us had our phones out at different times capturing the action. We were cheering, chanting and yelling when great plays were made.
It was a really fun experience I think everyone should take in if they have a chance. Unfortunately, they won’t be at home again this year, but we are already making plans to get our hands on their schedule for next year!
