Cville Cardinals show PVCC how to ball
Mathew Fragola, staff writer
Sports are for everybody, regardless of physical disabilities. That is why on Wednesday, April 18, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., PVCC hosted an event for students and staff to play in a pickup game of wheelchair basketball with the Charlottesville Cardinals.
“Charlottesville Cardinals teach students people with disabilities can achieve and accomplish,” said Disability Service Counselor Susan Hannifan who helped set up the event at the PVCC basketball courts. The event was held to help bring awareness to the PVCC community that disabilities do not define you in your life.
The event was catered as well with fried chicken, mac and cheese, and green beans with plenty of refreshments. All that combined with a beautiful day caught the attention of students and caused a huge turnout with plenty of spectators.
“It is a lifelong sport,” said the founder of the Cardinals Tom Vandever. The Cardinals are a team individuals aged from 19-82. The program started in 1979 but did not have its first season until 1980. Since the start of the program, there have been around 600 athletes come through. This year they ranked 13 in their division out of the whole country.
“It was hard to get adjusted, but I learned quick and started balling,” said PVCC Student Tyler Gaines. The sport itself requires of extreme upper body strength, balance, and gritty personality.
The Cardinals split themselves among the two teams and then students and staff filed in between the teams afterward. The teams did not keep track of the score, but that did not stop the teams being from going hard and competing. The teams did not stop moving up and down the court. There were a lot of missed shots which helped influence a speedier game than normal.
They even let me join the game. It happened to be a lot of fun and ran an hour longer than it was scheduled.
The impact of the game was more than to just play basketball. It was to bring everyone on an even playing field and showing that even with disabilities you can conquer.
To learn more about the Cardinals, their website includes a video documentary, team roster, and also their message at http://cardinalsbasketball.com/.
