Wheelchair basketball players show skills in Las Vegas tournament
Nate Carruth was born without a left femur. Doctors amputated his foot and put him in a prosthetic when he was a toddler. He never ran, but boy can he roll.
On Sunday at UNLV, 33-year-old Carruth was doing what he loves — playing ball. He and his teammates on the Las Vegas Yuccas were part of a two-day wheelchair basketball tournament. Nine teams participated in the tournament, many from the Southwest.
When Carruth was 15, he discovered wheelchair sports. He eventually went to college in Minnesota to play basketball on a scholarship.
Carruth commands the court. When he calls for his team to reset a play, they reset. His chair creaks as he tips it on one wheel to block shots and steal balls.
And he isn’t planning to settle for Division III, the bracket in which he competed Sunday. The bracket comprises many players who were recently injured.
“A life goal would be to be on the Paralympics team,” Carruth said.
Basketball has offered both recreation and solace to Carruth’s fellow Yuccas. Marc Fenn fell off a roof in his early 20s and became paralyzed from the waist down. He said basketball saved him from madness.
“The only thing that saved me was adaptive recreation sports,” said Fenn, a former Army paratrooper and silver medal Paralympian in the discus.
Carruth’s coach, Jonathan Foster, said basketball is the first sport many people try after they are injured because it helps build chair skills. Basketball rules for wheelchair athletes are basically the same as for ambulatory athletes, except there is no double dribble, and players must dribble after two pushes of their wheels.
Each wheelchair sport has a specialized chair. For basketball, chairs, which can cost up to $4,500, feature cambered wheels so players can turn and move quickly downcourt without tipping over. The chairs also feature smaller wheels on a metal bar along the back to prevent backward falls.
But that cost shouldn’t deter people interested in playing — the city of Las Vegas has about 35 chairs for use. The Yuccas practice twice weekly at Rancho High School, and nobody on Foster’s squad is getting an easy ride.
“We don’t coddle anybody,” he said.
In a game Sunday, Carruth snagged a rebound and stormed downcourt, wearing the intensity of the moment on his face. Ball in hand, he drove toward the hoop. A defender appeared, stopping Carruth short.
With a clash of metal, Carruth smacked the floor, losing the ball. His teammates grimaced. Carruth planted his only foot on the planks, pushed his wheelchair upright and flowed back into the play.
“He always gets up,” Carruth’s wife, Tabetha said from the sideline.
Contact Blake Apgar at bapgar@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5298. Follow @blakeapgar on Twitter.
