U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center offers unique perspective for NWBA Women’s Division Tournament
Five-time U.S. Paralympian and Wisconsin Adaptive Sports Association (WASA) Marquette Eagles wheelchair basketball player Natalie Schneider wanted to give her kids a cool memory.
She and her husband, Dan, tried to make the National Wheelchair Basketball Association (NWBA) Women’s Division wheelchair basketball tournament extra special for their three children, 12-year-old Rowan, 10-year-old Hannah and 8-year-old Tori.
Before her opening 8 a.m. game against the Arizona Storm, they let them shoot hoops on the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center main court in Colorado Springs, Colo., and pose for pictures in front of the main court sign. It’s a moment that would rarely happen there.
“This is where, like, the USA able-bodied team play. In the Olympics and the World Championships, like, this is where they train and try out, too. So, this was a really amazing place to get to be and to get to use the facility. People don’t get to just shoot hoops at the Olympic and Paralympic Training Center. It’s really amazing for them to get the opportunity because they’re here,” says Schneider, a two-time Paralympic gold medalist. “Most people just get to come in the doorway and look around and then leave. If we’re practicing, they peep through the windows and that’s kind of funny.”
The NWBA Women’s and Military Division tournaments kicked off Friday in Colorado Springs, with pool playing beginning in both divisions. The Women’s Division featured an upper eight-team division and lower division six-team bracket, while the Military Division opened with an eight-team pool play bracket. Both tournaments run through Sunday.
It gave players like Cleveland Rockers player Abby LaPole the chance to see where elite-level Paralympians and athletes train and to play in the same facility as them. Even with the Rockers not having played together yet this season, they went 2-0 in the Women’s Division lower bracket. And LaPole enjoyed her first day, appreciated the facility and getting to watch some Paralympians, like WASA’s Schneider, Becca Murray, Christina Schwab, Arizona’s Courtney Ryan and Jennifer Poist and a host of others, as well.
“It’s pretty. It is accessible,” says the 18-year-old, who recently committed to play wheelchair basketball at University of Texas-Arlington. “[It’s] humbling, and it’s good, so I can look at them and see what I can do better and how I can change.”
The 43-year-old Schneider knows these courts well. She’s tried out and made five women’s wheelchair basketball Paralympic teams on them (2008, 2012, 2016, 2020 and 2024) and played on them the last time the NWBA Adult and Junior Division wheelchair basketball championships were there in 2012, playing for the Denver Rolling Nuggets at the time. She now lives in Nebraska and plays for the Kansas City Kings Adult Division III team and WASA’s Women’s Division team.
Over the past 15 years, Schneider estimates she’s played and practiced on the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center’s main courts more than 100 times. But playing on the courts again again brought back both exhilarating memories of making past Paralympic teams and those of total exhaustion from doing push tests — wheeling laps around the court for 12 minutes straight.
“Just because the sessions that we have here in the summer, we’d be so hot. We’d be pushing so hard. It’d be third hour of a three-hour session, and we’re scrimmaging and pressing. And just, like, you finish the session completely exhausted,” Schneider says. “It’s special to be here. I love being here, and being here as an athlete is really cool.”
Count Poist, a two-time U.S. Paralympian, among the select few who can say they’ve played on those hallowed courts. She made the 2012 and 2016 U.S. Paralympic women’s wheelchair basketball teams and also tried out for them each year from 2011-2016 and once more in the 2020s. She says it makes her comfortable playing there.
No. 1 seed Arizona finished 2-0 Friday, defeating WASA (46-38) and the Lakeshore Lightning (50-26) in their two games.
“I was on the Paralympic team for five years, so we had tryouts here quite a few times. I was fortunate to make the team. I had a few rounds here where I got cut from the team, as well, so I had both experiences,” Poist says. “I think this place in general just has like a really good vibe to it and good energy. Like, every time you come back here, you just kind of think about, like, all of the players that have come through here and train through here, all the medals and successes that they’ve accomplished.”
Women’s Division Tournament – April 10 Pool Play
Upper Bracket
No. 1 Arizona Storm 46, No. 3 WASA Marquette Eagles 38
No. 5 Lakeshore Lightning 36, No. 7 Mary Free Bed 24
No. 1 Arizona Storm 50, No. 5 Lakeshore 26
No. 2 Charlotte Rollin’ Hornets 67, No. 4 Lincolnway Special Recreation Center Association (LWSRA) Hawks 36
No. 6 Angel City 53, No. 8 Bay Area and Outreach Program (BORP) Bay Meteorites 28
No. 2 Charlotte Rollin’ Hornets 68, No. 6 Angel City 43
No. 3 WASA Marquette Eagles 70, No. 7 Mary Free Bed 30
No. 3 WASA Marquette Eagles 58, No. 5 Lakeshore Lightning 30
No. 4 Lincolnway Special Recreation Center Association (LWSRA) Hawks 55, No. 8 Bay Area and Outreach Program (BORP) Bay Meteorites 19
No. 4 Lincolnway Special Recreation Center Association (LWSRA) Hawks 65, No. 6 Angel City 50
Lower Bracket
No. 11 Virginia Vortex 49, No. 9 PNW Reign 36
No. 11 Virginia Vortex 40, No. 13 Adaptive Sports Ohio Cleveland Lady Cavs 25
No. 9 PNW Reign 36, No. 13 Adaptive Sports Ohio Cleveland Lady Cavs 31
No. 10 Ability360 Phoenix Mercury 34, No. 12 ParaSport Spokane 15
No. 14 Cleveland Rockers 45, No. 12 ParaSport Spokane 12
No. 14 Cleveland Rockers 43, No. 10 Ability360 Phoenix Mercury 25