In adaptive sports, wheels aren’t relegated to just race cars

Born with spina bifida, a developmental disorder affecting the spinal cord, Steve Morales never imagined a life playing sports.

Now 28, he aggressively races down the court as he dribbles the basketball just out of his opponent's reach. Morales spins the ball behind him in a pass to his teammate who makes the shot just outside the key.

Morales is the point guard of his wheelchair basketball team, the Las Vegas Silver Bandits. The team starts practice in September. The sport is just as active on wheels as it is for people afforded the ability to play with their legs.

The team is part of the city's paralympic sports club that also offers other adaptive sports, including quad rugby, tennis, hockey, soccer, softball, swimming, track and field, archery, volleyball and cycling. The club gives participants an active lifestyle they may not have thought possible and a support group that provides everything from emotional coping to tips for modifying a home or car to just plain good friendship.

"Over the years, everything has been a struggle," said Morales, a Whitney resident who joined the team when he was 14 years old. "Ever since I started playing, my life thinking has been changed."

Reggie Bennett, a 40-year-old North Las Vegas resident who also plays the sport, said it's about taking "can't, won't, never" out of the vocabulary used to describe people with disabilities.

Bennett was paralyzed at age 13 when his friend's little brother accidentally shot him. He has since played wheelchair basketball for years and holds nearly a dozen titles in bodybuilding. He also runs a nonprofit organization, R.A.G.E., Inc., that provides assistance to people with disabilities.

For a kid whose only dream was to become a professional athlete, adaptive sports provide an incredible outlet for competition and success, Bennett said.

"It's like being a bird in the sky. There's no limits," he said. "Words can't describe the feeling of being back to living again."

Bennett said that adaptive sports are just as competitive as their able-bodied counterparts, noting his catchphrase: "If you want to be a champion, you have to train like one."

The Las Vegas Silver Bandits won the national championship in Division III wheelchair basketball last year -- a far stretch from not winning a game from 1998 to 2003. Sweat drips off the players' faces and soaks their clothing during practice as they tip on one wheel to make a shot or ram their chairs into their opponents' chairs.

Assistant coach Jonathan Foster said he'll teach newcomers how to get to that level, starting with basic chair-maneuvering skills. He said although the team is for 14-year-olds or up, he also has sport wheelchairs available for younger children who want to play, noting that adaptive sports provide skills in leadership and keep kids out of trouble the same way other sports do.

"These guys have an amazing will to excel in life," he said of his team. "I think a lot of times we take things for granted. And these guys just have the will to overcome anything."

Contact Southwest/Spring Valley View reporter Jessica Fryman at jfryman@viewnews.com or 380-4535.