Movin’ Mavs aim toward another national title
ARLINGTON - The University of Texas at Arlington will host the 2011 National Wheelchair Basketball Association (NWBA) Intercollegiate National Championships Thursday through Saturday, March 10-12, at Texas Hall.
Seven men's and four women's wheelchair basketball teams are vying for the top honors. UT Arlington's Movin' Mavs are seeded third in the men's division but are hoping to capture another championship title. The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater men's and the University of Alabama women's teams are the top seeds. The Illinois men's and Alabama women's teams won the titles last year. The Movin' Mavs have won seven men's titles, the last in 2006.
The action begins at 9 a.m. Thursday with women's competition pitting the University of Alabama against Edinboro University. The Movin' Mavs' first game begins at 5 p.m. Thursday against Southwest Minnesota State.
Semifinals are Friday with the championship and consolation games set for Saturday. All tournament games will be streamed online at www.stickam.com/movinmavstv.
Admission is free. See the tournament schedule for details.
The 2011 NWBA National Championships will be held April 7-10 in Denver, Colo.
While the team focuses on the NWBA action, Movin' Mavs Coach Doug Garner and three players also are preparing for national play this summer.
Anthony Pone, Blake McMinn and Juan Soto, will represent UT Arlington at the 2011 Army Warrior Transition Unit (WTU) National Championships at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in May.
Coach Garner has been selected as the Army WTU National Team Coach and will lead the Army National Team at the event in Colorado Springs, Colo.
"We are excited to be in this position," said Garner. "And it is an honor for me to be able to give back to these soldiers who have sacrificed for our freedom here in the States."
The WTU Games are an annual event put together in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Paralympics as a way to help injured service veterans transition back into life through participation in sports and recreation.
The three Movin' Mavs players were selected as a result of their participation with the Movin' Mavs program and their participation in a four-day tryout camp hosted in December 2010 at UT Arlington.
The University will host a training camp for the Army National Team on April 14-16 in the Physical Education Building to help prepare the team for the national games. The public is invited to attend the practice games.
The training and scrimmage schedule will be posted at www.utamovinmavs.com as the team gets closer to the camp time.
The University of Texas at Arlington is a comprehensive research institution of 33,800 students in the heart of North Texas. Visit www.uta.edu to learn more.
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Media contact: Bridget Lewis, Blewis@uta.edu, 817-272-3317
The University of Texas at Arlington, www.uta.edu
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