Could this wheelchair basketball tournament lead to a future partnership with Rock Hill?
The ball-handler takes a dribble in front of him, freeing his hands to crank his wheelchair forward.
He looks up: In front of him, his teammates are crashing into defenders who were pursuing the ball, giving him a lane to take it to the basket. Behind him, a crowd of parents cheer; a shot clock ticks down from 30; two refs trail the play. An opposing coach stomps his feet, trying to get his players’ attention: “Y’all got to wake up!”
Earlier this month in the West Center on Winthrop University’s campus, these were the sights and sounds of the Queen City Classic, a wheelchair basketball tournament put on by the Charlotte Rollin’ Hornets. The tournament gathered 19 of the 85 youth wheelchair basketball teams across the country, and the teams played all day Saturday and most of Sunday before trophy presentations in the afternoon.
To Mike Godsey, the Rollin’ Hornets director and the father of an adaptive athlete, this tournament is always special.
“Every one of our kids, generally speaking, when they roll into a McDonald’s or Chick-fil-A, they’re different,” Godsey said. “Here, I’m different because I don’t have a chair. I don’t have a prosthetic. It’s really neat that they get to have this safe haven, to learn and experience and to be teenagers.”
But the weekend turned out to be beneficial for more than just the competitors. It was also good for the city of Rock Hill.
“The city of Rock Hill and Visit York County have been tremendous in making sure that this tournament was hosted here…” Godsey said. “They wanted to make sure it stayed in Rock Hill and were able to get us some grant money, and that’s the reason we’re here. We hope to be here in the future in the new facility.
“Because it’s built for tournaments like this.”
Rollin’ Hornets: ‘Opportunity to try’
National Wheelchair Basketball Association CEO Will Waller sat behind a table, selling merchandise, as adaptive athletes played in front of him.
Waller, a U.S. Paralympian from 2000-12, had driven down from Cleveland, Ohio, to be there and help set up the event. It was the first time the NWBA CEO had attended one of the Rollin’ Hornets’ events, an event organizer said.
“At the end of the day, the organization is about the players,” he said. “And in order for us to make sure that our strategy and our objectives are on point, we have to get out to where the athletes are.”
The sport of wheelchair basketball did a lot for Waller, he said. And now he wants to give back.
“The NWBA is an army of volunteers — of people who understand the benefits that these kids get by playing wheelchair basketball,” he said. “It’s not just about the X’s and O’s, or wins and losses; it’s about giving them an improved quality of life.”
Wheelchair basketball is among the fastest growing sports for athletes with a disability — and the Rollin’ Hornets, per Waller, are considered a “benchmark program.” The organization is completely volunteer-run, and through the years, Godsey said the Hornets have sent 18 kids to play adaptive sports at the collegiate level: 16 in basketball, and two in track and field.
Betsy Sprenger, who was a co-chair of the tournament at Winthrop, said the Rollin’ Hornets keep a chair designed for basketball — one with extra wheels, some of which are slanted to make for a sharper turning radius — so people new to the sport can try it out.
Chairs like this can cost more than $2,000, Sprenger said.
“If a kid wants to come try, we have a chair they could sit in and try,” Sprenger said. “And when they decide they like it and want to stay, then we set them up with the programs they can get a grant from to get a chair of their own.
“Every kid should have the opportunity to find the sport they love, if they have a disability or not, and we want to give kids that opportunity.”
City partnership: ‘I would love to see that’
The event had to be relocated after the Rock Hill Sports and Event Center wasn’t ready in time, but the tournament stayed local.
Andy Clinton of Visit York County said this tournament was good for the city’s sports tourism.
“I worked with the city of Rock Hill, talked to them about opportunities of (Godsey’s) tournament that he runs,” Clinton said. “In the next two to three years, we’d love to host the nationals here in Rock Hill. We want to continue to build that relationship with Mike, and for people more on the national level.”
When asked how Godsey would view having larger tournaments in the Sports and Event Center, he smiled.
“I would love to see that,” he said. “It’s not only just nationals, but we hold international tournaments. The United States is the reigning Paralympic champions in wheelchair basketball, and the plans that they have in the new facility — with the hotel expansions next to the parking garage adjacent to the buildings — are tremendous, when you’re thinking about bringing in a lot of international teams...
“We’re excited about the future.”
Learn more about the Charlotte Rollin’ Hornets
Facebook: www.facebook.com/RollinHornets
Website: rollinhornets.cloudaccess.net
NWBA website: www.NWBA.org
This story was originally published November 20, 2019 at 5:03 AM.
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