Daily Issues of a Paralympic Athlete – Setting Priorities, International Competition and Life
It’s been a week since I returned to my current home, and I barely feel like I’m caught up on sleep. Six games, two practices and several team meetings in three days combined with a sleep average of six hours took tiredness to another level. Luckily, I had a nine hour flight from London to Chicago to sleep… At least that was the plan. Did you ever try to sleep on a plane though? To me, that is impossible! Either there is babies crying, or the person next to you steals the armrest, or the neck starts hurting from being in the same position for so long, or, or, or.. I could go on and on but in other words: Once I finally arrived at home, 22 hours later, I really needed a bed to recover.
The next morning, I woke up at 5AM. Oh, how I love jet lag! Then, I was wide awake, but later that night, when I had to go to a night lecture for two and a half hours, the only way to stay awake was thinking: “I have to get through this, it’s for Paralympics! I can do this! Only a few hours!” I still had trouble fighting my eyes wanting to shut, but I made it. I even got through two exams the next day. And now here I am, three weeks away from completing another semester, the last one before London, and all caught up on sleep.
The games over Easter in Sheffield were fun. We tested some new lineups and I enjoyed being back with my team playing high quality international basketball. I also got some great minutes, started about half of the games and scored the second most points for our team (I actually didn’t know this until I read the article about our wins afterwards, but it’s an easy way of describing I did a decent job without any self-praise.).
What excited me most throughout the games was that I got to play in our press lineup! I really like playing at a fast pace, and being able to use my chair and have to defend across the entire court. I enjoy the feeling of putting pressure on other teams by using my quickness to make them insecure. Of course, this doesn’t always work, and it certainly wasn’t always great when we did it. But we are working on it and it is fun to me. I especially love it because I can really feel I got something done on the court even if I play for only a few minutes. It’s not just a shot and some movement on a square meter; it’s actual hustling at the limit the entire time! Like I said, I love it!
I wish we could have games all the time, but unfortunately that fun was only to be enjoyed over Easter. Now we are taking a little game break and won’t return until May 19. That day, we will play in Frankfurt, Germany. The competition will be even better and tougher but that only makes it more exciting! Until then, it is time to train, train and train… And I guess I shouldn’t forget to take my exams to complete my courses this semester… Oh well, 2012 is a Paralympic year, the next one won’t be for another four years, so I have my priorities straight! How about you?
Starting off the paralympic year!
Last weekend, the German senior team had the first training camp in Frankfurt. It was chaotic because two players were hurt, three had other occupations and could only take part in specific sessions but in the end it went really well. We played tough and had a lot of fun.
As soon as I got to my German home, on Sunday, I had to begin studying and writing papers because I am missing over a week of school in the United States to be here and start off the paralympic year. Luckily, I had informed most of my professors in December or January that I will be missing classes, so they were willing to accommodate the schedules for me and allowed me to send in homework’s via email. Not many universities are flexible and allow such absences, which is one of the reasons why I chose to go to the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Throughout my entire three years there, I only had trouble with one professor that wasn’t willing to help me out to complete my work for him and play for the national team but even then I could find a solution.
Tomorrow, our team will get on a plane again to travel to the first games of the year. We will play at the “Standard Life Tri-Nations Cup” in Sheffield, England. Even though most of us are used to traveling a lot and we have worse trips on the schedule this year, e.g. twenty-four hour flights to Australia etc., tomorrow will be crazy as well. Half of our team will be flying from Hamburg to Munich to then connect to Manchester, even though Munich is the opposite direction. Only few of us have direct flights but even then we aren’t much luckier because we might have to wait at the airport for three hours until the rest of the team arrives. Once all of that is completed we will have to load a bus and drive an hour to our accommodations. I hope we get there before 1AM but chances are we won’t. Anyways, I’m sure we can sleep in the next morning since we only have one practice and two games on Friday…. Enough negativity – I’m excited to get the opportunity to be here even though I should be in class and am able to compete and get ready for the Paralympics 2012!!
P.S. If you would like to see the schedule and follow live stats Friday, Saturday and Sunday, check out this website: http://www.gbwba.org.uk/gbwba/index.cfm/calendar/standard-life-tri-nations-cup/#.T3tlht1xSzI.facebook
Join us on Pinterest
Pinterest is an on-line social network sharing scrapbook project where people and organizations share images with the community. They IWBF has created our own Pinterest Pin-board scrapbooks so we can share our images with you.
The IWBF is comprised of people, places, events, activities, equipment and so much more than words can sometimes demonstrate. Take a look here http://pinterest.com/iwbf/
2012 IWBF Bloggers Search
April 2012 and the IWBF is about to send out an invitation to all of our Wheelchair Basketball Community members asking you to join us as a blogger.
We are looking for individuals, teams and organizations.
Are you an athletes, coach, official, staff, organizer, volunteer, family or friend, fan of Wheelchair Basketball? Are you waiting with enthusiasm and excitement for the London 2012 paralympics where you know Wheelchair Basketball is always a huge highlight?
If you can not wait to receive your invitation send us a message – you can email us at iwbforg@gmail.com or iwbfsecretariat@aol.com.
We have had some amazing bloggers helping us learn the blogging ropes since last years U25 Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Championships in Ontario, Canada. Some of them are back blogging about their experiences and journey to London.
You do not have to be a paralympian to contribute to our blogs. Just be someone who wants to help showcase the ups and sometimes downs, hardwork, fun, friendships, frustrations, story of a lifetime journey that you can find when connected to the wheel chair basketball community.
UW-Whitewater Warhawks are on top of the United States with the first-ever double championship!
In today’s U.S. National Intercollegiate Wheelchair Basketball Tournament – the UW-Whitewater Warhawks men and women both won the championship games. Both teams were ready, prepared and had more will to win the trophys than any other. Both teams pulled away from the beginning and never let their opponents recover. The women’s won 63-34 and the men won 101-60.
I’m proud to be a part of this amazing program, and I’m proud to say we have captured the first ever double championship for men’s and women’s national intercollegiate championship titles within one program and one year. This shows the quality of our hard work and the efforts we put into getting better every single day.
Whitewater’s women’s team only finished its fourth year of existence. This year is also the first year that some of our athletes are graduating and the team will loose veterans. Nevertheless, we are excited to continue this great story of success by taking on the challenge and carrying over the things we learned and teach our younger players how to get it done.
If you would like to continue hearing about our work, success, etc., check out our Facebook page or website: http://www.uww.edu/recsports/wcathletics/
For me, it is now time to prepare for the Paralympics 2012, which will be the next exciting wheelchair basketball event! I will keep updating you with blog posts on my way there, so keep looking out for them.
Thank you for all your support, thank you for everyone that followed my last post and watched our great games this weekend and thank you for your interest!
US Championships: National Intercollegiate Wheelchair Basketball Tournament
Before getting back to Germany to practice with my teammates for the Paralympics 2012, me and many other paralympic athletes will compete in the National Championships for US College wheelchair basketball! The tournament takes place in Champaign, Illinois March 8-10! Both divisions (men’s and women’s) have several teams head to head, so it will be a very exciting weekend of basketball! All games will be streamed online, so if you would like to follow these high quality competitions, check out the following links!
Schedule: http://www.uww.edu/recsports/wcathletics/niwbt.html
Live Stream: http://stickam.com/niwbt
Game 2 Wrap-Up – Team Mexico Celebrates


Mexico Wins a Trip to London 2012
Hello from a late night in Mexico
Tonight the 2nd of a best two out of three series between Mexico’s women’s wheelchair basketball team and South Africa’s has concluded with Mexico winning both games and earning the trip to London for the 2012 paralympics.
For more information and details head over to the IWBF website http://www.iwbf.org/
Thank you to our teams from Mexico and South Africa. Thank you to our officiating crew
The 3rd scheduled game will be played on Sunday as an exhibition game and an opportunity for both teams to continue to grow, learn and have fun.
Maureen Orchard
IWBF President














