Wheelchair athletes love to compete.
A former Gluckstadt family started a wheelchair youth basketball team in 2013 that started off with six athletes and a second-place trophy from their first basketball tournament in North Carolina.
That team morphed into the nonprofit Mississippi Youth Wheelchair League — MYWheeLs for short — in 2014. The goal of MYWheeLs then and today remains the same — to provide wheelchair sports opportunities at little or no cost to Mississippi families.
The family, Lisa and Dave Elliston, moved from Nashville to Mississippi in 2013 and were looking for a youth wheelchair basketball team for their then 12-year-old son, Jonathan.
Jonathan, who was born with the rare bone condition, polystotic fibrous dyplasia, had been playing wheelchair basketball in Nashville since he was 8.
“I found an adult wheelchair basketball team in Jackson. After reaching out to them, Jonathan was invited to come to practice with them at Jackson State University. Because he was not 18, he could not join the adult team,” Lisa Elliston said. She said others had tried to form a youth team in the Jackson metro area, but no one had any luck.
That’s when Lisa and Dave decided to go all in and do it themselves.
“Following a grassroots promotion to reach out to children with a lower limb disability and an invitation to all the sports reporters at the local television stations, our first “Basketball Fun Day” took place at JSU,” Lisa Elliston said.
Over the summer months, Lisa secured an “In-kind sponsorship” with the Baptist Healthplex in Clinton for a practice facility. Her husband took on the challenge of naming the team, coming up with team colors, and a logo, and was their first head coach. That’s when the Mississippi WheelCats were born.
The team joined the National Wheelchair Basketball Association and the group’s Southeastern Conference where the WheelCats competed against teams from Birmingham, Alabama, Nashville, Atlanta, and Raleigh and Charlotte, North Carolina.
The Ellistons decided that no family should have to pay to play.
That first season, with the help of the MACE Foundation, the families raised money and had access to grant money to assist with funding for travel, hotel rooms, and tournament costs.
Through sponsorships, grants, and donations, the WheelCats have been able to continue the league and teams each year.
MYWheeLs needs about $90,000 to run a successful year for three teams. That money funds different camps to send athletes and families to, insurance, a storage facility, websites, and NWBA fees. To help financially and make donations, readers should reach out to Chief Financial Officer Mark Roth at 769-232-7510 or email him at mcroth5@yahoo.com.
The Mississippi WheelCats youth team has grown to include a varsity team as well as a team for high school seniors, The Mississippi ThunderCats.
Six WheelCat graduates have gone on to play collegiate wheelchair basketball. Recruitment is the same as in the NCAA for able-bodied sports. These six players were recruited by Southwest Minnesota State University, the University of Illinois Champagne/Urbana, and the University of Alabama.
The Mississippi Youth Wheelchair League also features other competitive adaptive sports, including swimming, para karate, archery, para shooting, tennis, and fencing.
One was barely five years old when mom brought him to his first practice to try it out. That mom told us that this sport changed him forever. He couldn’t wait to come to practice again, smiled so much more, and didn’t want mom to push him in his day chair anymore.
Lisa Elliston said families from all around Mississippi who participate are grateful that the WheelCats exist.
“The two stories that really brought Dave and I to our knees, were two children from two different families under 10 that wished they weren’t born; vocabulary that children shouldn’t have in their heads,” Lisa Elliston said.
“One was barely five years old when mom brought him to his first practice to try it out. That mom told us that this sport changed him forever. He couldn’t wait to come to practice again, smiled so much more, and didn’t want mom to push him in his day chair anymore. The family moved out of state, but he continues to play wheelchair basketball at 15 years old.”
The other story, she said, involved a nine-year-old boy who hated using a wheelchair.
“When he joined the WheelCats and saw the other kids in wheelchairs, he couldn’t wait to get his very own sports wheelchair to play. Ten years later he received a college scholarship to play wheelchair basketball.”
Parents have their own reactions.
“The very first time a child gets into a sports chair with a basketball in their lap and held with their chin, rolling down the court; the parent almost always cries tears of joy. When the child doesn’t want mommy or daddy to push them in their day chair any more is another huge moment for parents. They never thought they would see that independence in their child,” Lisa Elliston said.
For more information about the Mississippi WheelCats, visit www.mywheels.org or call 601-985-8712.
