CHENEY—When EWU wheelchair basketball head coach David Evjen was hired in January,
one of his first tasks as the leader of the fledgling program was to assemble a roster. Seven months later, he has found the minimum number of players needed to field a team: five.
Now, amidst a global pandemic and uncertainty clouding when the team can see its first ever game action, the players and Evjen are honing their skills and growing team chemistry, hoping they can compete soon.
“We are not scheduled to play in any tournaments until January with one tournament then, one in February, and the national tournament in March,” Evjen said. “As long as those events don’t get cancelled due to COVID, that is our plan.”
The team, which is officially called EWU Para Sport and is sponsored by EWU athletics and the College of Health and Sciences, consists of players that all come from the greater Spokane area.
The two captains are Spencer Kimbro of Moses Lake and Bob Hunt of Elk, while Trayton Dwyer of Spokane is the team’s lone senior. Tyler Hinshaw of Post Falls and Spokane’s Sophie Munter, the team’s lone female, round out the roster.
All five players used to play on the same junior team with Para Sport Spokane, so they’re familiar with each other.
“Our greatest strength is how close we are to each other,” Kimbro said. “Considering it’s a small team, we really have no option but to be close with each other and know each other’s ins and outs.”
Munter and Hunt also participate in wheelchair racing with the organization. Both are hoping to reach the 2021 Paralympic Games in Tokyo in the sport.
Kimbro and Dwyer have previous playing experience. Kimbro played at the University of Alabama and won a championship, while Dwyer played at Southwest Minnesota State University with Evjen when the now-coach was in his playing days.
When recruiting his five players, Evjen didn’t want to promise much, except for one significant university marker.
“Not to be cliché, but these five are gonna be a part of history in starting the program and being on the inaugural team,” Evjen said. “I think all five took pride in that, especially all being from the area. I think it would’ve been different if a couple or majority of them had been from different areas.”
Practices began in the physical education building Sept. 24 on the courts many basketball athletes train and many athletically-inclined alumni will remember as where intramural games are held. Due to COVID-19 regulations, practices look different than they normally would.
“They need to be spaced out, they need to be six feet apart. With five players it’s a lot of drills,” Evjen said. “Shooting drills, ball handling drills, chair skill drills, which is kind of like our footwork so to speak…the beauty of it is, they can all practice at the same time. Due to the mandate, it’s one to three coaches per every five athletes, so we’re perfect.”
Hunt described the practices as “killer, but good.”
“We have really good endurance,” Hunt said. “Our shooting is getting way better, our free throws way better.”
Kimbro said the team is still getting a feel for each other after several years of not playing together.
““We have all the skills necessary. We just need to fine-tune them and put in that extra work,” Kimbro said.
He added that the team has focused on making sure everyone is a good shooter, because they don’t have another option with no substitute players.
“There’s only five of us, so we don’t really have an option but to be shooters,” Kimbro said.
Hunt and Kimbro helped the team grow closer over the summer by doing captain-led practices five days a week over Zoom. Now that they can practice in person, Evjen said he’s seen that the team has speed. The next step will be making sure the team has the conditioning necessary to play a collegiate-level game.
“We do have some speed, so on the court our speed is going to be key, but we have to make sure we’re not overstressing their shoulders and we have to make sure they’re not getting burnt out,” Evjen said. “That’s kind of a dance that we have to do.”
“Even though we have speed, that doesn’t mean we’re conditioned, so our conditioning will need to improve because we have no subs,” he continued. “We need to find a way to communicate at a super high level when we get into game action.”
While the team waits for the day it can play a real game, it will continue practicing four days a week in the mornings on campus in hopes of being a successful launch to a first-time program at EWU.
Drew Lawson can be reached at drew@cheneyfreepress.com.
This story was updated at 9:11 a.m. on Oct. 20.
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