For the twentieth year in a row, two strands of one sport came together at Cuyamaca College. The Coyote men's basketball team tried out the seated version of the game alongside local wheelchair athletes.

 

"It's the same sport, but it's kind of different," said second-year Coyote Shai Stevenson. While's he now played in two editions of the wheelchair game, he says some of the simplest things are still the hardest to master. "Probably moving on the chair, like turning around. And dribbling with the ball."

 

"I like seeing how awkward they are," said wheelchair player Jose Estrada. "It's funny, because some of them kick out their legs, or try to push with their legs, and I'm like, 'Guys, it's a wheelchair, you can't get up and run no matter how much you want to.'"

 

Sophomore Calvin Harris felt much more comfortable the second time around.

 

"It felt like I knew what I was doing a lot better that time than when I first started, which was like, 'How in the heck do I do this?'" he said. "The Cuyamaca basketball team, I don't know, it felt like they knew what they were doing better than last year."

 

This year's Coyotes showed off at least one skill: outside shooting.

 

"I thought that being in a chair, they wouldn't make as many shots as they did," said Estrada. "But no, two of them made threes. We didn't even make threes, so the fact that they did was incredible." 

 

Stevenson was responsible for one of those long-distance makes. So what was the secret?

 

"I just had to push it and get some rotation on the shot," he said. "I knew it was going in."

 

According to Estrada, "It just goes to show you that basketball is fundamental. You're in a chair, you're standing up -- if you know the game, you'll do all right, and they did it.

 

"We don't see each other as any different, we just see each other as athletes. That's the best part of this, it brings us all together."