CHARLOTTE (Steve Goldberg's Wheel World) - After a brief respite, the summer of international wheelchair basketball will shift back into top gear in a couple of weeks with the IWBF Americas Cup Tournament beginning on August 21. Four men's and four women's teams from the competition in Cali, Colombia will qualify for the IWBF World Championships that will find home in Hamburg, Germany next year.

With only five teams on the women's side, there is little chance that the defending Paralympic champions USA will miss out on a German holiday but the roster named by new head coach Trooper Johnson is more of a who's she than the who's who of big game-tested players who have defined the team since Beijing.

In a video interview posted by the NWBA prior to Rio, Desiree Miller said, "One of the most exciting parts about this team is the unique blend of veteran capabilities and our rookies who are coming in for the first time during the Paralympics and the excitement that they bring."

 If she felt that way about the four rookies on the Rio team, she will be absolutely giddy about the Cali contingent that will introduce nine newbies to international competition.

Abby Dunkin and Vanessa Erskine join Miller as the only three of twelve Rio Paralympians on the current squad and two of them were the first-time Paralympians she was talking about. Miller is the only holdover from the roster for the 2014 World Championships in Toronto and I would be comfortable wagering that she most likely has more international games on her resume than all of the other players combined.

Miller, who turns 30 next Saturday – Happy birthday Desi – joined the national team for the 2010 IWBF Worlds in Birmingham, England and became a factor on the Paralympic team in London two years later. By Rio, she was a team leader, both in experience and by example.

Along with, who notched their first Paralympic caps in Brasil, Miller will have to lead not just on the court but off it as well, calming the nerves that come with intercontinental travel and adrenalin rush from wearing national team colors on the court for the first time in real competition.

Miller told IWBF.org, "There’s been a high level of competition throughout the squad within the last few months and everybody has been working hard to earn their spot."

The initiation began in earnest with three games in three days this past week and a reality check of three humbling losses (46-58, 41-48, 48-63) to their only real competition in the zone, Canada. Those games were played on home turf in the other Birmingham, the one in Alabama.

Of the ten players, Canada took to Alabama, six (Arinn Young, Cindy Ouellet, Erica Gavel, Melanie Hawtin, Rosalie Lalonde, and Tamara Steeves) were on the team in Rio, and four of those (Hawtin, Ouellet, Steeves, Young) were on the World Championship winning side in 2014. When announced, the full roster may offer even more experience.

Asked about the team’s ambition in Colombia, Miller was true to her own competitive nature, "As a group, we have high expectations of ourselves and always have. As part of team USA, we always push for gold, we always hope for gold and try not to settle for anything less."

While winning the zone championship would be nice, that would be a lot to expect given the experience gap and the results this past week in Alabama. The sting of defeat is a great motivator for true champions though.

But it's all a path and the journey is just as important as the destination. So I could not end this column without a shout-out to the Afghanistan Women's National Team who, in their first-ever tournament outside their home country, won the Bali Cup over Thailand, India, and Indonesia last weekend.

The Afghanistan National Women's Wheelchair Basketball Team is one for one in international competition so far, winning the Bali Cup in Indonesia. Photo courtesy of IWBF

Tournament director Rodney Holt was quoted on IWBF.org, saying, "This was Afghanistan women’s first overseas tournament and they quickly become the crowd favorites with their cheerfulness, passion and skills. They presented a personal face to a country that most of us know just from the news, and unfortunately news which is mostly negative. They were great ambassadors for their country."

In fact, cheers to all of the athletes, coaches and officials who participated in the Bali Cup as they grow in the game as well.

Steve Goldberg

FIBA

FIBA's columnists write on a wide range of topics relating to basketball that are of interest to them. The opinions they express are their own and in no way reflect those of FIBA.

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