Wheelchair athletes roll into Bell Buckle for Round Robin Classic

Literally.

The inaugural Heritage Medical Center Rollin' Round Robin Classic, a tournament for wheelchair basketball, will be held Saturday, Jan. 16, at the Webb School gymnasium. Originally scheduled for Nov. 5 and 6, the event, a fundraiser for Bell Buckle's public park and a new basketball court there, was changed.

Carla Webb, right, attempts to explain the rules of wheelchair basketball to Cascade coaches Chad Spencer, Charlie Pope and Kenny Parker. (Submitted photo)

"It was more convenient when it came to getting the teams we wanted," said Carla Webb, the town's first lady as well as the event chair. "The later date was better timing for the teams and gave us more time to get publicity out."

One of the players for the University of Alabama team, Jared Arambula, has been making advance visits to Bell Buckle before the event. Years and years before the event.

"He's my nephew," said Carla.

Gold medalist

Jared has spina bifida and has been confined to a wheelchair for most of his life. He's been playing wheelchair basketball since he was 5, when he was featured in Sports Illustrated for Kids and on Nickelodeon. Now a college player, he was a member of the gold-winning Olympic team last July, she said.

For now, he plays with the Alabama men's team, which placed fifth in the nation this year. The Alabama women's team won the national championships and both teams will be present at the Rollin' Round Robin. Two other teams, from the Lakeshore Foundation in Birmingham, Ala., and The Shepherd Center, from Atlanta, will be there to challenge the collegiate champs. Both Lakeshore and Shepherd offer a wide range of sports for youth and adults with physical disabilities, from waterskiing to rugby, from marksmanship to tennis. Alabama is one of only 12 colleges or universities that offers wheelchair athletics across the country, and is the only one in the Southeast.

Visitors will get the chance to meet the young athletes, something Carla encourages.

"They each have such remarkable stories to tell," she said earlier, but those stories are not meant to elicit pity or sympathy. "Just admiration.

"People come thinking it's going to be sad and slow, but oh my gosh! It's so exciting! The wheelchairs just add that speed! And when someone falls out -- and they do, even though they're strapped in -- no one picks them up. The game just goes on and none of the players or the refs will help them up -- they have to do it themselves."

Mayor busted

Those strict rules may pose a problem for her husband, Dennis Webb, the mayor of Bell Buckle. One of the many fun features added to the tournament is an exhibition game between the Alabama team and local dignitaries. State Sen. Jim Tracy and State Rep. Pat Marsh will captain and co-captain the team, but Dennis may soon be relegated to the position of waterboy, said Carla.

"The mayor's been yanked from the team," she joked. "We went down to visit Jared and he even let him try out his chair, but Dennis kept pulling up, or getting out -- and they aren't allowed to do that. The mayor will be the waterboy unless he can prove he can follow the rules and play nice."

Laughing, she offered a tidbit in his defense.

"He said he wanted to do a Harlem Globetrotters style," she said. "I told them the comedy's there, but not the talent!"

Besides the exhibition games and regular tournament play, there will be a performance by the Cascade cheerleaders, and a 50/50 $1,000 cash shoot-the-hoop contest. Tickets for this are $1 each, but for $10, you can get a "free-throw length" of tickets, which can be 25 to 30 tickets.

"The drawn ticket bearers will each choose a player to shoot for them," explained Carla. "The best out of 10 shots from the free-throw line or farther back wins the ticket bearer $500 cash."

The remaining $500, she said, will go toward the construction of the new basketball court.

There will also be a barbecue dinner featuring the winner of the 2009 Best of the Butts People's Choice winners for $5 a plate, which includes two side dishes from the Bell Buckle Café.

Examples of courage

Carla not only wants to spread the word about how much fun the wheelchair basketball games are, she wants everyone to realize how hard playing can be and what incredible athletes these men and women are.

Wheelchair players are ranked by the level of their disability, she said. An able-bodied person would be a five, while a paraplegic would be ranked at 1. None of the teams competing have anyone ranked higher than 5 and the Alabama teams don't even have anyone ranked as high as a 4. Her own gold-medal nephew is ranked at 2. The rules are as tough as the players. The court is the same standard as regular basketball, with the hoops at the same height, and no matter what their ranking, or how ambulatory they are off court, on court they have to stay in their chairs.

"The thing I like most about it is people who have physically challenged children can come and see what they are capable of doing," said Carla, "I want them to see the vendors with the really cool neon wheelchairs. I want corporations to come and show what job opportunities are out there."

If you go

The Heritage Medical Center Rollin' Round Robin Classic Wheelchair Tournament will be from 8 a.m.to 3 p.m. at the Webb School. Tickets are $5 each, with children under 5 admitted free. Lunch will be available for $5, featuring barbecue from the Best of the Butts Peoples' Choice Award winner (for two years running), as well as two sides from the Bell Buckle Café. Tickets for the 50/50 $1,000 shoot-the-hoop contest are $1 each, but for $10, you can get 'free-throw length' tickets -- about 25 or 30. For more information, contact Carla Webb at 389-7017.