Sean Nichols grew up watching older brother Andrew play basketball at Villa Madonna Academy.
Last Friday, Sean did something Andrew never did – he signed a national letter of intent to play wheelchair basketball for the Alabama Crimson Tide.
“They were active in talking to me throughout the recruitment process, which I started last year,” Sean said Monday. “And, through talking with them and learning more about not only the program, but also the opportunities offered at Alabama for the field that I’m interesting going into, I decided that that was gonna be the best place for me to take the next step and not only my athletic but academic journey.”
Sean, 18, of Edgewood, plays for the Cincinnati Dragons. He has transverse myelitis, which, according to the Mayo Clinic (bit.ly/4k3ji53), is “an inflammation of both sides of one section of the spinal cord.”
“This neurological disorder often damages the insulating material covering nerve cell fibers (myelin),” the Mayo Clinic states. “Transverse myelitis interrupts the messages that the spinal cord nerves send throughout the body. This can cause pain, muscle weakness, paralysis, sensory problems, or bladder and bowel dysfunction.”
‘Really excited’
Sean’s mom, Nicole Kuzmin-Nichols, took Sean to a summer family camp at the Center for Courageous Kids in Scottsville, Kentucky. It was the first time Sean could play with kids who also had transverse myelitis.
“And one of them mentioned wheelchair basketball,” Kuzmin-Nichols said. “He was really excited … And they had a huge gym and basketball hoops in the gym. And there were some kids who were there who were playing in wheelchairs, shooting baskets and stuff like that. And he seemed to have a great time shooting baskets while sitting in his chair.”
Sean Nichols has been a Dragon since 2015, a year after the program started. His coach, Jake Counts, remembers the 8-year-old boy’s first time on the court.
“Just real, real smart,” Counts said. “I could explain a concept to Sean, like once, even as a little kid, and just kind of see him get it.”
According to the National Wheelchair Basketball Association (nwba.org), 12 colleges award men’s scholarships: Alabama, Arizona, Auburn, City University of New York, Eastern Washington, Pennsylvania West (Edinboro), Illinois, Missouri, Michigan, Southwest Minnesota State, Texas-Arlington and Wisconsin-Whitewater.
Alabama, Arizona, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Texas-Arlington and Wisconsin-Whitewater also offer women’s scholarships.
Like standing basketball, each wheelchair team has five players who play four 10-minute quarters and shoot at a 10-foot-goal. The NWBA classifies them on a 1.0 (severest disability) to 4.5 (least) scale based on their physical capabilities, and teams cannot exceed 14 points. (Sean is rated a 1.5.)
Players carrying the ball are allowed to push their wheelchair twice with their hands per possession; they dribble by tossing the ball in front of them and chasing.
“That’s one way to do it,” Nichols said. “For me, what I do is I take a push, I bounce the ball, I push again, and then I’m able to catch the ball with my palm up. There’s no such thing as a carry in wheelchair basketball.
“And then I’m able to repeat that motion in order to dribble. You are allowed, though, to take a push, flip it out in front of you and then push to catch it.”
Littles and Bigs
Wheelchair players are usually grouped into two categories – Littles and Bigs. The littles (with NWBA rankings of 1.0 to 2.5) are the guards who typically bring the ball up court, set picks and play perimeter defense, while the bigs (3.0-4.5) are the forwards and centers who focus on rebounding, scoring in the paint and defending the basket.
“We play a drastically different defensive style than most standing teams just due to the fact that we’re able to actually fully block off space,” Nichols said. “We can stop … someone from actually moving entirely instead of just being able to control the direction they’re going. Also, besides stuff like fast breaks, our offense is a lot more out looking for the completely open shot rather than, ‘Can I get a little bit of space on this one person and then take the shot?’”
Nichols wants to study computer science at Alabama, and he’s not ruling out trying out for the USA Paralympic team that will compete in Los Angeles in 2028 or Brisbane, Australia in 2032.
“So maybe a bit optimistic dream would be to make it to 2028,” he said. “ But the goal would be to make it to 2032.”