The USA Men’s Wheelchair Basketball team made a stop at Savannah State University on Saturday. The team was in town to practice for an upcoming trip to Bogota, Colombia for the Americas Cup.
Executive Director for the National Wheelchair Basketball Association, Randy Schubert, said the support the team has received from SSU and the community has been outstanding.
“We had a sense that the hospitality and the welcomeness from the community to our group would be high, and it’s proven to be that and then some. Everybody has been fantastic,” Schubert said, “The biggest thing we strive for and tell people is that we don’t want you to look at the chair, look at the elite athletes. These are Olympic-caliber athletes.”
The team brought home the bronze medal in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London and point guard Paul Schulet, who has been on the team since 1998, says that the experience was memorable.
“London was jaw-dropping. You felt like a superstar while you were there, and when you’re just an athlete you don’t think of yourself like that. To come home with the bronze meant a lot to us,” Schulet said.
Schulet won’t be making the trip to Colombia, but said he believes the team will make him proud.
“Anytime you go to a qualifier for the world championship, it’s intense,” Schulet said, “We’re really excited for our guys to go, and we know they’ll perform strongly.”
The top four performing teams from the Americas Cup will travel to Seoul, South Korea in August of 2014 for the Men’s World Championships.