Day 49: Wheelchair Basketball

We awoke at the Pi Kappa Phi house on the University of Indiana campus to lots of rain. This morning we had eggs, bacon, and fruit for breakfast and were greeted by Phil Summers, former National President of Pi Kappa Phi and winner of the prestigious Mr. Pi Kappa Phi award. He had just flown in from Supreme Chapter, one of Pi Kappa Phi’s biggest awards receptions, in Denver where he updated us on how the Build America trip went. He then talked about the importance of Push America and Journey of Hope for our organization and for the people we touch. He was a very good speaker and it was an honor to get to have him join us for the morning.

We then headed out to a very rainy day that would thankfully be a little shorter than normal. Our route took us 55 miles to Indianapolis, IN as it rained for much of the morning. Even though it was a wet one many of us were just thankful it isn’t 100 degrees with 100% humidity because that is very tough to cycle in.

Lodging is at Indiana University and Purdue University of Indiana, a school combining the universities as an alternate campus with specific majors. We stayed in the freshman dorm lounges and were excited to have a day off in Indianapolis and explore.

The best part of the day was when we headed to a community recreation center that had a basketball court. There we met up with the local wheelchair basketball team. We got to have a spaghetti dinner with them and hear some of their stories. The league they play in is two below the professional level in their respected sport. Many of them had only been playing for 3-5 years and yet were good enough to travel as a team to different tournaments around the country. They were telling me they travel locally and out of state and recently were in Las Vegas for the biggest tournament of the year. These guys were real cool, one of them played in the Olympics in Sydney, he was incredibly quick and obviously no one could come close to guarding him. The ages of the team ranged from 15-45, all the guys were really good and when faced against the Journey of Hope team we didn’t stand a chance.

I got to talk with a 15 year old kid named Ryan who was the youngest of everyone and swatted me multiple times while he was on defense. He was a really neat kid and told me he is trying to do better in school and stay out of trouble so that he can get back the basketball wheelchair that the team had loaned him until he found himself being disciplined at school. It’s always inspiring to watch those with physical disabilities engage in sports because its such an outlet for them. They really get into it and take pride in the abilities they have even though they are in a chair; I love seeing how motivated they are.

Since we have a day off tomorrow we were able to go explore the city. We had a great time at one of the Piano bars downtown. I had never been to one and so it was a blast hearing song requests from the crowd that were then played by dueling piano players on stage. It was a great night and tomorrow we got to sleep in until 9 AM!