New knees have wheelchair hoops veteran rolling again

Lori Radke is feeling extra protective of her knees, because she’s only had them for a couple of years and knows they have to last her awhile.

For that reason, the former member of Canada’s women’s wheelchair basketball team stopped playing completely and took to the bench in 2013, helping coach the Calgary Rollers.

That changed this past February when a shortage of players at a tournament forced her into a game. She felt so good after that experience that she’s playing again this week as the Rollers host the Canadian Wheelchair Basketball League’s women’s national championships at Mount Royal University.

“They have this magic number of (age) 50 where they don’t like to do replacements before that, so it took me a couple of years to talk them into it,” said the now 49-year-old physiotherapist, whose knee problems began when she blew out both anterior cruciate ligaments at the age of 16.

“I just couldn’t manage anymore. It was impacting everything. It was progressively affecting my ankles and my hips and back.

“The difference is hard to explain. The pain is gone. I couldn’t do anything before.”

The Rollers are hosting four other teams — Edmonton Inferno, B.C. Breakers, Saskatchewan and defending champion Quebec.

Games on Day 2 on Saturday are from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (the Rollers are in action at 10:45 a.m. and 2:15 p.m.) with the bronze and gold medal games at 9:30 a.m. and 12:15 p.m. on Sunday.

Radke is classified as a 4.5 athlete in wheelchair basketball because she’s considered to have few if any physical limitations.

Lower class athletes — such as 1.0 — are more limited in their functional skills.

She’s thrilled to be back not only playing basketball again, but also participating in other things the deterioration of her knees prevented.

“It limited my world so much,” she said. “This year I went crosscountry skiing and snowshoeing and skating with my kid for the first time — and he’s 13.

“It’s opened my word to activities I haven’t done in 20 or 30 years.”

The nine-member Rollers roster includes another former national team player, Kendra Ohama, along with Lana Cicko, Cathleen Digel, Jessica Forgeron, 13-year-old Savannah Hunik, Jamey Jewells, Makrina Morozowski and Diane Sorenson. Steve Ryan is the coach. Ohama stepped away from the national team after the 2012 Paralympics in London to finish off a 20-year career with the program, but has remained active locally and was named to the championship all-star team in 2014 in Richmond, B.C., where the Rollers finished fourth.

“I don’t want to come out and say ‘ Yeah, we’re going to do it this year’ but I think there we are going to be quite competitive,” she said.

Jewells, 25, is a national team member from Donkin, N.S., who plays for the Rollers because there is no team in her region. She’s expected to participate at the Parapan Games in Toronto this summer and was part of the team that won the 2014 world title.

“The Parapan Games is big for us because it’s the Americas qualifier for the 2016 Paralympics in Rio and we’re ranked No. 1 heading into it,” Jewells said.

I just couldn’t manage anymore. It was progressively affecting my ankles and my hips and back. The pain is gone.