Basketball on ice, some championship advice

CHARLOTTE (Steve Goldberg's Wheel World) - On Thursday evening I had the chance to chat with a couple of wheelchair basketball players who are Paralympic and World Championship gold medalists. Rico Roman (shooting in above photo) and Kevin McKee, are in town this weekend with the national team for a training camp.

Perhaps I should be more specific; that would be the USA National Sledge Hockey Team.

Roman plays for the San Antonio Parasport Spurs who are currently ranked 19^th in the NWBA's Championship Division. McKee usually plays for the RIC Hornets (Division III) in Chicago but is taking this season off due to his hockey playing and coaching commitments. Both won gold at the 2014 Winter Paralympic Games in Sochi and the 2012 IPC World Championships. McKee also has a gold from last year's World Championship.

When not on the ice for the USA National Sledge Hockey Team, Rico Roman (with ball) suits up for the NWBA San Antonio Parasport Spurs. Photo: Courtesy of NBA/San Antonio Spurs

With the start of the Rio Paralympic Games now just 201 days away now, I thought it would be timely to ask those on top of the mountain about how they got there.

Roman says he'll be on the court for the Spurs wheelchair basketball team next weekend but for the next few days, it's all about the ice.

Like wheelchair basketball, sledge hockey began as a rehab sport, first developed in the 1960's in Sweden. Like basketball it turned competitive as soon as that first whistle blew. It became a Paralympic sport for the first time in 1994.

Sledge, or sled as they call it here, hockey is currently the USA's most successful team sport with three gold medals in the six Paralympic tournaments held including the last two and three IPC World Championships in the past four competitions.

So what's the secret to that success?

According to the team's head coach Jeff Sauer, it's about chemistry. Noting that some national teams choose to play all their best players together or their most experienced, the former University of Wisconsin coach claims that finding the right mix of players who do well together is far more critical than just putting the most talented athletes on the ice.

That's something that USA Basketball was forced to do after the reality check of a quarterfinal loss to Yugoslavia as hosts of the 2002 FIBA World Cup, and semifinal losses to Argentina in the 2004 Athens Olympics and Greece in the 2006 FIBA World Cup in Japan. Since 2008, the American men's team has truly embodied the "team" aspect and have claimed and remained the top of the podium.

USA National Sledge Hockey Team coach Jeff Sauer knows how to build a championship team. Before leading the USA to Paralympic and World Championship gold, the won two NCAA titles at the University of Wisconsin. Photo: Courtesy of USA Hockey

"You have to read your players first," he told me after the first day of training ended. "You have to figure out who are the guys who get it and who doesn't; who are the guys you have to work with to get them ingrained into a system and so forth. It takes a lot of work."

What really put us to the next level was the influx of the military guys. They brought a level of discipline that we really needed. They gave us an attitude of togetherness and chemistry which is an important word to a coach. The chemistry on this team over the past several years is as good or better than any NCAA team that I coached that won a national championship.

Roman defined it this way, "Everybody here is not playing for themselves but for the guy next to them. Everybody is pushing each other to be the best on and off the ice and we're representing something bigger than ourselves, our country."

The recipe he says is,

"Trust, teamwork camaraderie, and the sense of pride in representing your country. We all buy into that," McKee added. "We all work hard for each other. When we're all clicking and moving the puck together and playing as a team there's no one who can beat us."

He said there is an adjustment that comes when they are with the national team.

"When we go home on our club teams we're like the best out there so some guys sometimes come to camp and don't want to move the puck but as soon as they do, they see we can play. Here you know you will get it back."

Rico Roman (center) and Kevin McKee (right) are both wheelchair basketball players who have won Paralympic and World Championship gold medals in sledge hockey.Photo: Courtesy of USA Hockey  

As a game though, it will all, at some point, come down to the players to which Roman adds this key observation.

"We have a lot of leaders on this team but we know when to lead and when to follow."

He hopes to see that work on the basketball court as well. One thing that has certainly transferred is the physicality that he brings to the Spurs.

He says the frequent and calculated collisions of playing world class hockey have made him a much tougher basketball player.

"I'm not afraid to get in there and mix it up."

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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