The Denver Rolling Nuggets, Colorado’s National Wheelchair Basketball Association team, are training the next wave of athletes. Having lost sponsorship and participation after the pandemic, the team is rebuilding while also bringing the community together.
“We play basketball hard. I mean … you could put us up against probably an NBA team, and in our chairs, we’ve got a chance,” said board member and Rolling Nuggets player Dan Hendrix. “Most people have two hands to use when they are playing basketball. Well, that’s also what we’re using for our legs, too. So as we’re trying to propel ourselves forward, back, move around, we’re also catching the ball, shooting the ball, passing the ball.”
While these players may pick and roll with ease, this year the team will have to miss out on nationals as they still feels effects from the pandemic.
“We lost some sponsorships. We lost a lot of participation,” Hendrix said, “It set the program back several years. … Right now we’re really recruiting hard to try to regain the team.”
So the team turned to a focus on teaching and created what they say is the only kids practice team in the state.
Lucy Harris is one of their new players and joined the Nuggets a few months after recovering from a car accident in 2023. Harris said before this team, she hardly knew any other kids that used wheelchairs.
“It kind of gave me a realization that I’m not the only one, and that I’m kind of like I have a group, and I have people that I can be around and then just be myself,” Harris said.
As more kids join practice, the Denver Rolling Nuggets hope to not only coach them into the next generation of players, but also give the kids more opportunities to play with one another.
“(My friends) didn’t really know what will lie ahead for me, and if I was ever going to be able to, like, play on the playground with them,” Harris said. “But I think after I found the basketball team and other sports that I really love, I was kind of like, ‘okay, like, I’m okay, like, I can still do all these things.’”
The team is actively looking for new sponsors. The specialized wheelchairs for the sport can run up to $10,000. As a result, many of the players use hand-me-downs from the adults as long as they can, alongside some help from Kroenke Sports Charities and Southwest Airlines.
“I know there’s a lot more, lot more adults, children out there with disabilities. They could benefit from playing sports,” Hendrix said, “We want to bring the whole community together.”
So, no matter how your bracket ended up this March, you can still count on Harris for that Cinderella story.
“I’m like, okay, ready for the Paralympics or something like, let’s do this,” Harris said.
