Team Camp - 2010. Wheelchair basketball, sledgehammers, and more!

In early June, I flew to Colorado Springs for the National Team camp. It was my first time invited, since until this last season I've always been 1-2 people away from the official "National Team."

It was to be a week of teambuilding, training, meetings, volunteering, etc., but I only went for the last few days due to my foot and back injuries. At the time, it didn't seem worth it to go when I'd have to sit out every physical activity. Sprinting? No go. Weightlifting? No go. Yoga? No go.

Turns out I'd timed it perfectly - the day I got there, the team activity was water polo! How perfect is that?




We didn't pull any punches either, even if we were cheating with floaty belts...and for some people, flippers...


The next day, the team activity was wheelchair basketball! Again, how perfect??? It was fate.


A member of the US National Wheelchair Basketball team put us through our paces.


Coach Shimer was a natural.


It was super hard to shoot from a seated position - and I've never been good to start with!


(Which made it that much better when I actually scored a few!)

There was a lot of carnage....

Me:


And many more:





Notice that we're always laughing at the crash victims. Not a sympathetic bunch, are we?




People weren't the only casualties - we lost a couple chairs too.


We finally got to play.






At one point, we had to do a drill where we sat in two rows and passed the ball across to each other. After we threw the ball, we had to wheel as fast as possible to the other end of the line, hopefully in time to catch it again, and had to do this until our whole group made it the length of the court. Here's a shot of the action:


I also made it in time for the reception for several sponsors,


and a visit to a picnic for the Wounded Warriors.


For some reason, at the picnic the boys sledgehammered a bumper off a car. I never figured out why, but the crowd loved it.


They all signed their names to the bumper and posed proudly.


We also had meetings with our new coach, an awards ceremony for various achievements over the year (I didn't take my camera), and general teambuilding and bonding. It was a pretty sweet weekend and I felt very lucky to be able to participate.