As posted at: www.journalgazette.net
Kelly Soderlund
The Journal Gazette
Growing up, Shane McVoy played the big three in sports: football, basketball and baseball.
But when he was 17 years old, his dreams of running the bases, tackling an opponent and dunking a basketball disappeared. He was racing a friend on his motorcycle on a country road in Huntington County when the path came to a T.
McVoy didn’t see the road end, and he crashed, flying into a shed on somebody’s property. He suffered a spinal cord injury and is paralyzed from the middle of his chest down.
After his accident, McVoy, who now uses a wheelchair, went out to his basketball court and tried to shoot a ball. It was pretty hard, and McVoy’s realization that he was not the same athlete was a blow to his confidence.
But then, chance stepped in.
McVoy was at a medical supplies shop when the storekeeper’s son asked him whether he would be interested in meeting some local guys who were trying to get some pickup wheelchair basketball games together.
Flash forward 18 years.
On Sunday, a 39-year-old McVoy led the Fort Wayne Bandits to a victory at the Mid-American Wheelchair Basketball Conference Tournament. The event was held at the Turnstone Center for Children and Adults with Disabilities, 3220 N. Clinton St.
The team, which is undefeated this season, won the tournament for the second year in a row.
The 15-member Bandits team faced off against the Cleveland Cavs, Columbus Buckeye Wheelers, the Moraine Minutemen and Lafayette Spinners at Turnstone’s gymnasium.
The competitiveness, athleticism and bonding brought McVoy, who is not only a player but coordinates the team, back to where he now has more confidence and higher self-esteem.
“It just gave me the team sports thing back,” said McVoy, of Huntington.
The camaraderie of wheelchair basketball also helped Justin Hosler, 31, of Huntington, meet some guys who knew what he was going through.
Hosler has paralysis from the waist down, the result of a car accident 11 years ago when a car came over a hill in Huntington County and struck him head-on.
Before joining the Bandits, Hosler said he knew only three other wheelchair users. Now, he can talk to his teammates about different medical issues and other things on his mind.
The Bandits are mostly adult men with spinal cord injuries, but there is also a player with one leg and another with spina bifida, a birth defect in which the bones of the spine don’t form properly around the spinal cord.
The range of disabilities leads to varying skill levels, with some players having control over more muscles than others, enhancing balance and coordination, Hosler said.
Their victory Sunday is not the end for the Bandits. They’ll compete in more tournaments and eventually travel to Denver for the national tournament, where they placed third last year.
