"Sweet Georgia Brown" Should Be Playin'

Linds plays wheelchair basketball, which I didn't even know for several months. She started a couple of years ago at the local community centre and I thought it was just a bunch of kids goofing around in the gym - she always just said she was going to "basketball". It turns out it's an organized thing every week and she signed herself up. One of her best friends (since kindergarten) is in a wheelchair and, when she went to watch/support her, they needed extra players so she ended up on the team. Well I'll be damned if last year they weren't in a big (regional!) tournament and kicked some serious butt.....apparently they're pretty good. And the first game I ever saw was the final - where Linds managed to make the buzzer shot to win the game, earning her the MVP game ball. But, more important than the "win" or how good they are is the fact that these kids work together like a team you've never seen. They're very much "in synch" with one another and, after a hoop there's always a quick high five then they're off, wheeling down the court like it's completely effortless. There are no handicaps and those who actually NEED to be in the wheelchairs are shining stars - they've got skills like you wouldn't believe out there. But I think the thing that impresses me the most is that there are no barriers...everyone's the same and they're all just friends - laughing, being goofy and bordering on annoying. They are afterall TEENS.

Anyhow, here are some pics from tonight's practice. I left before the scrimmage 'cause it just ain't cool to have mom hanging around for too long.

(A funny thing..two boys on the team looked vaguely familiar and I learned that they were sons of a girl I grew up and went to elementary school with. Small world).

This is Linds and her good friend (the one since kindergarten), Felicia...Fifi to us. I'll be writing an entire post on her awesome family in the near future.

No, it's not disco dancing, it's BASKETBALL...o.k.?

This is Balraj...he's a frickin' character. He's all of about 80 pounds and he gets in there, gritting his teeth and fighting for the ball like a bloody warrior!

I just like this one.

It's a lot harder than it looks.



This is the familiar face that looks just like my friend from grade school, because he's her son, Shae.

This is her other son, Jessie, who looks nothing like them!