WHEELCHAIR HOOPS SCHOLARSHIP FOR TEEN; Lee-Davis' Blake Rush Signs To Play College Wheelchair Basketball

Written by Cam Smith | USA TODAY \ June 9, 2014

Did you know that some colleges award full scholarships to wheelchair basketball stars? We didn’t either, but Blake Rush has opened our eyes, and plenty of others.

As noted by Richmond ABC affiliate WRIC, Rush accepted a scholarship to attend and play wheelchair basketball at Edinboro University, a Division II school in Pennsylvania. The Lee-Davis senior from Hanover, Penn. Will be expected to help turn around a struggling wheelchair basketball program that finished the 2013-14 season with a  4-26 overall record.

"In the eighth grade I found out that some colleges have [wheelchair basketball], and that it could be a possibility for me to play in college," Rush told HCS Media. "Ever since then I've just been working really hard to improve and get better. 

"[Playing with adults] was hard at first, because everyone was so much faster and stronger than the kids I had been playing with. But I stuck with it."

Davis was unable to play wheelchair basketball for Lee-Davis because the school didn't have a team, but he remained competitive playing for an adult team called the Richmond Rimriders. He made such a name for himself that he was recruited by Edinboro and other programs. 

Clearly, the Edinboro coaching staff feels that Rush can help bridge the gap between the school and the seven other members of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association. Rush is a lifelong wheelchair basketball star (he began playing at the age of 10) who refused to let his birth with spina bifida discourage him from chasing athletic pursuits.

Now that hard work has paid off the way that it does for many of his most athletic classmates, albeit in a different arena. 

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