Wheelchair Basketball Comes To West Point

WEST POINT, Miss. (WCBI) — Phillip Lindsey is just like any other kid in Mississippi.

Raised in West Point he enjoys hunting, watching Stephen Curry sink threes, and playing basketball.

But Phillip plays the game a bit differently.

He shoots his shot from a wheelchair.

“Phillip was born with Caudal Regression Syndrome,” Phillip’s mother Lindsay Lindsey said.  “Very rare and basically he was born with his L4 and L5 vertebrae that didn’t grow correctly. So his legs didn’t grow correctly either.”

Until just a year ago the Lindsey family wasn’t aware Mississippi had any competitive special needs programs.

Through word of mouth Phillip was able to find his new passion.

“It was kind of funny because we lived within 20 minutes of the player and didn’t know he played,” Lindsey said. “When he was advertising for the exhibition game he thought of Phillip and told us they were having an exhibition game. So we said ‘sure, we’ll come.’ So we didn’t tell Phillip about it and we just kind of surprised him with it and he just fell in love with it after that.”

“I get to see people like me and play with people like me,” Phillip Lindsey said. “I like baseball but I can’t play baseball anymore so I guess basketball is my favorite sport.”

The Wheelcats are the only youth wheelchair basketball team in the state.

As a non-profit the MyWheels organization pays for all the kid’s team expenses.

By holding these exhibitions the Wheelcats look for players just like Phillip and potential new donors.

At the exhibition in West Point all different types of people were given the opportunity to play against the Wheelcats in wheelchairs.

“So many people have the misconception ‘oh, it can’t be that hard to play basketball in a wheelchair,” Mark Roth CFO of the Mississippi Youth Wheelchair League said. “Just watching them struggle pushing up and down the court, watching our young athletes just fly around these older people in the wheelchairs is a lot of fun. It’s not just for fun for the kids, which it is, but it’s to raise awareness that we exist. That adaptive sporting opportunities are out there and available and we are looking to recruit members. If you have a lower limb disability regardless of what that disability is you can participate on the Wheelcats basketball team. You don’t even have to be a wheelchair user. As long as you have a lower limb disability you qualify to play wheelchair basketball.”

“Phillip didn’t think he’d be able to play a whole lot of sports because he was in a chair,” Lindsey said. “Now because of wheelchair basketball he has excelled and he loves the sport and his confidence has grown.”

Phillip’s love for the game has become the Lindsey family’s winning shot.