TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The University of Alabama Disability Sports program will expand its wheelchair sports program to include a men’s collegiate wheelchair basketball team in the fall of 2006.

A major part of the mission of UADS is to provide competitive sport and athletic opportunities for persons with disabilities. Founded in 2003, UADS already has a women’s wheelchair basketball team. The Crimson Tide women compete in the women’s division of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association and made a run to the final four last year in only their second season in the league. The men’s team will start competition this fall in the college division of the NWBA.

The Crimson Tide men will be one of only 10 university men’s teams in the United States. The team will compete in the intercollegiate division of the NWBA against the University of Arizona, University of Missouri, Oklahoma State University, University of Oklahoma, University of Illinois, University of Texas Arlington, University of Wisconsin Whitewater, Southwest Minnesota State and Edinboro University.

For more information about UADS and the wheelchair basketball program, contact UADS director Brent Hardin at 205/348-5109, or visit the UADS Web site at www.bama.ua.edu/~uads.