The scuff and skid marks help tell the story. Of collisions, of wheelchairs tipping over, of abrupt stops, pivots, and turns. The banners on the walls around the court’s perimeter serve as a complement to those tales — of a World Championships in Amsterdam, of a Parapan-Am Games in Toronto, of the 2012 London Paralympics, of the three women’s and 14 men’s collegiate national titles.
From the outside, the Roseman Building on the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater campus looks like another indistinguishable administrative hall that could be dropped onto the grounds of any American college. But “Roseman”, as its inhabitants call it, is home to some of the best wheelchair basketball players in the United States.
“It’s ours,” says Matt Scott, who won three championships at UW-Whitewater in the mid-2000s and is also a two-time Paralympic gold medalist. “That was the mission-control center.” It is one of the most understated venues used by high-level athletes.
Up until a few years ago, the gym floor at Roseman was rubber, not wood. That was part of its charm as its athletes had to race up and down the practice court on a surface that is harder to maneuver on. What it lacks in glitz, it makes up for in grit, with Whitewater players feeling pride for powering…
