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    • Wheelchair basketball for the Paralympics has many connections to Wisconsin
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    Wheelchair basketball for the Paralympics has many connections to Wisconsin

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    A Wisconsin powerhouse that has played in the Olympics will soon get another chance to flex its muscles.

    Wheelchair basketball kicks off Thursday at the 2024 Paralympics in Paris, and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater will have alumni in the program, with eight athletes from the school. Whitewater is home to a 14-time national champion men’s program, which won the title for the first time since 2016.

    These are:

    Jake Williams (Milwaukee), 33

    The head coach of the Warhawks program already has two Olympic gold medals and now he’s headed to a third Games. He graduated from the school in 2015.

    John Boie (Milton), 33

    He won a gold medal with the men’s team at the 2020 Paralympic Games, is a two-time Olympic competitor, and is an academic advisor at UWW. He graduated from the school in 2014 and received his MBA in 2019.

    Languages ​​Jourdan (Deerfield), 24

    He won gold at the 2022 World Championships and is competing in the Paralympic Games for the first time.

    Jeromie Meyer (Woodbine, Iowa), 27

    He graduated from Whitewater’s Leadership Skills in Higher Education program and will receive his first degree from UWW in 2022. He will compete in the Olympics for the first time.

    Former Team USA Warhawks include Becca Murray, who earned a bachelor’s degree in special education with minors in sports coaching and psychology in 2014, and Lindsey Zurbrugg, who earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education with minors in sports coaching in 2021.

    AJ Fitzpatrick (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), 19

    He is a student at UW-Whitewater and the youngest member of the wheelchair basketball squad.

    Nate Hinze (Cedar Grove), 36

    Hinze is a three-time Olympic participant in the sport, winning two gold and one bronze medal. The Whitewater alumnus (2011) is assistant principal at Port Washington High School.

    Becca Murray (Germantown), 34

    She is a three-time Olympian, winning two gold medals before qualifying for Paris. She is also a Whitewater alumna, graduating in 2014.

    Lindsey Zurbrugg (Portland, Oregon), 25

    She won bronze at the 2020 Paralympic Games and graduated from Whitewater University in 2021.

    Emily Oberst (Milwaukee), 26

    There’s also a non-Whitewater connection. Oberst is originally from Milwaukee and played collegiately at Alabama, and Illinois is headed to her first Paralympics.

    Whitewater sports athletes representing other countries

    • Sammy White, who holds two degrees from Whitewater, will be part of the Australian men’s team.
    • Mareike (Adermann) Miller, who received a diploma in 2013, and Vanessa Erskine, who graduated in 2015 are part of the German women’s national team.
    • Mariska Beijer, who received his marketing diploma from Whitewater in 2017, will play for the Netherlands.

    Wisconsin connections also on the coaching staff

    • The Team USA women’s team is coached by Christina Schwab, who was a coach at Whitewater from 2016 to 2022 and was an assistant coach for the men at the 2020 Paralympics. Since the end of 2021, she has been responsible for the national women’s team. The three-time gold medalist at the Paralympics and five-time Olympian as a player comes from Dane, Wisconsin.
    • Schwab, who coached the UW-Whitewater women from 2016 to 2022 and coached Zurbrugg for five years, was an assistant coach for the U.S. men’s team at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. She took over as head coach of the U.S. women’s team in December 2021.
    • Desiree Millerborn in Monroe, Washington, will serve as an assistant coach. She was also a former assistant coach at Whitewater and played a decade with Team USA, where she won two gold medals.
    • Ryan Hynes, who served as the head coach of the Alabama women’s wheelchair basketball team for seven seasons, will become an assistant coach for the U.S. women’s national team. He was a two-time All-American at Alabama and won a national championship in 2013. He is a native of Germantown.

    The U.S. men begin the group stage on Thursday at 9 a.m. CT against Spain, followed by the Netherlands on Saturday at 9 a.m. CT and Australia at 3:30 a.m. CT on Sept. 1. The men play the quarterfinals on Sept. 3, the semifinals on Sept. 5 and the bronze and gold medal games on Sept. 7.

    The U.S. women’s team will play Germany on Friday at 9 a.m., the Netherlands on Saturday at 11:15 a.m., and Japan on Sept. 2 at 6:45 a.m. The women’s quarterfinals will be held on Sept. 4, the semifinals on Sept. 6, and the bronze and gold medal games on Sept. 8.

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