The Sterling Heights Challengers is one of three youth teams in Michigan offering the chance for children and teens with disabilities the opportunity to play basketball on a team. Source photo by Deanna Rose

The 12-year-old plays for the Sterling Heights Challengers, a basketball team that gives an opportunity to youth who can’t play the sport on a regular team because they have disabilities.

On Oct. 25, 2000, Cooper was in a car accident that rendered him unable to use his legs due to a spinal cord injury.

“When he came to this team, he was so depressed,” said his mother, Lashanda Cooper. “I can tell it makes a difference.”

For Diane Thornwell, the Challengers were also welcome find. Her 13-year-old twins Myron and Byron Hill were born with cerebral palsy, confining them to wheelchairs. As a result, the teenagers didn’t have many opportunities to become involved in sports.

“They don’t have too many things for handicapped kids,” Thornwell said.

Since 1992, the Sterling Heights Challengers have offered youth with any kind of physical disability - even those not limiting aspiring athletes to wheelchairs - the chance to play wheelchair basketball. The coach of the Challengers, Diane Winterstein, has been coaching basketball for youth with disabilities since 1980.

“Our hope is that the involvement on the Sterling Heights Challengers team helps to prepare these young people for successful college and professional careers,” Winterstein said. “We trust that we are giving them some of the building blocks of life through playing on the team and the life experience they will have.”

The Sterling Heights Challengers, which is in the Junior Division of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association, played in the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Regional Qualifying Tournament on Jan. 5-6. According to Winterstein, the varsity team won two games and lost three over the weekend.

“They were seeded 10th and they placed ninth,” she said. “We’re working on a lot of stuff with them, and I think they’re going to get better and better as time goes on.”

The Challengers practice together Mondays and Wednesdays, from 7 to 9 p.m. at Carleton Middle School in Sterling Heights. When it’s game time, though, there are two separate teams that take to the court: the prep team, which is made up of the younger and more disabled players, and the varsity team, made up of older players. Each team plays a couple games each month at conference and regional tournaments to reach their goal of winning the national tournament.

On April 7, the Challengers will play a local game against area judges, attorneys and law enforcement at 7 p.m. at Carleton Middle School, 8900 15 Mile Road in Sterling Heights. Tickets will be available at the door, by donation only.

For more information about the Challengers, visit www.SterlingHeightsChallengers.com