A women's team hones its skills against tough foes

PITTSBURGH - On the scoreboard it was another loss, 35-30 to the Youngstown Hot Wheels, but coach John Sikora was awfully proud of his Steel City Starz.

"You did a lot of good things out there today," he told his basketball players, all of them women in wheelchairs. "You should feel good about how you played."

The Steel City Starz, founded seven years ago, are one of 15 women's wheelchair basketball teams in the country. With the mid-December defeat, their record fell to 1-6, but that was chiefly because they had to play most of their games against men's teams, Sikora said. There are more than 200 men's wheelchair basketball teams.

Playing the men, Sikora said, should help prepare his players for the National Women's Wheelchair Basketball Tourney, scheduled for Feb. 27 to March 2 in Champaign, Ill.

"It's tough because there aren't many women's teams around, said Sikora, 54, "but we're getting better every day."

Wheelchair basketball was started in the United States in 1945 to help rehabilitate veterans with spinal injuries.

"I love the team competition and the sport," said Leah Gray, 38, of Mount Pleasant, one of the founding members of the Steel City Starz. "It gives me a chance not to act like a lady."

Any wheelchair-using woman may play for the Starz, Sikora said. "There are no tryouts," he said. "Anybody who wants to come comes."

Lorie Hamann, 22, of Steubenville, Ohio, played basketball for Franciscan University in Steubenville until she sustained knee injuries that have required three operations. But she's in a wheelchair only for Starz games and practices.

That puts Hamann at a mild disadvantage because she is less used to maneuvering a wheelchair, and the muscles she use to do so are less developed.

Hamann's previous basketball experience makes up for her relative unfamiliarity with the wheelchair, Gray said.

"It takes a while to learn how to maneuver the chair, but it's harder to learn the rules of the game," she said.

The Starz player who travels the farthest to games is Kaitlyn Willard, 18, who lives in Upper Darby.

"We got up at 3:30 this morning and drove up," said her mother, Betty Jean. "We'll play the game and come right back."

Kaitlyn Willard was born with spina bifida but has not let that slow her down. She lifts weights and has played wheelchair basketball for eight years. A senior at Upper Darby High School, she is on the track team there with able-bodied youngsters.

"She does all the distances - 100 meters, 200 meters, 400 meters, 800 meters, the mile," her mother said.

The able-bodied have the advantage in the shorter distances, Kaitlyn Willard said. But in the longer distances, where the wheelchair has time to gain momentum, the advantage shifts to her.

Last month, she received word that the University of Alabama had awarded her a scholarship.

"It's the best Christmas present she could have gotten," her mother said.