RollingTideBlog

The start of the 2023-2024 season saw the return of Tyler McKay. McKay had been a volunteer coach for the University of Alabama wheelchair tennis team for two seasons and then an assistant coach for the next two seasons. After a couple years away from the university, he returned to the Alabama Adapted Athletics program as the head coach for the wheelchair tennis team. McKay takes over for Evan Enquist, who spent eight seasons as the head coach of Alabama’s wheelchair tennis team and left at the end of the 2022-2023 season to become the United States Tennis Association’s National Manager for Wheelchair Tennis. Tyler McKay returns to the Alabama Adapted Athletics program to become the wheelchair tennis head coach. (photo courtesy of Tyler McKay) The search process to find a new head coach followed the standard University of Alabama process. First a search committee was assembled. Then the job was posted on several websites including Indeed and the USTA’s website. Some applicants w...

The University of Alabama women's wheelchair basketball team will play 26 games over the course of the 2023-2024 season (with 22 of those games being National Wheelchair Basketball Association Intercollegiate Division games. Its complete schedule can be found here . All games are livestreamed on the Alabama Adapted Athletics website . Here are some of the schedule highlights: Tide Tipoff Presented by RGK on Oct. 13 at Stran-Hardin Arena (University of Alabama) This is an exhibition, not a game. Also, it features both the men’s and women’s wheelchair basketball teams. While it does consist of parts of game-simulated scrimmages, it is mostly made up of other events (think the NBA or WNBA All-Star Skill Contests the night before the All-Star Game). But it is the first opportunity for the community to see the teams in action and the first opportunity for the players to take the court in front of fans, so the excitement from that alone should liven up Stran-Hardin Arena. Vs. ABC Medical...

The University of Alabama men's wheelchair basketball team will play 24 games over the course of the 2023-2024 season (with 16 of those games being National Wheelchair Basketball Association Intercollegiate Division games. Its complete schedule can be found here . All games are livestreamed on the  Alabama Adapted Athletics website . Here are some of the schedule highlights: Tide Tipoff Presented by RGK on Oct. 13 at Stran-Hardin Arena (University of Alabama) This is an exhibition, not a game. Also, it features both the men’s and women’s wheelchair basketball teams. While it does consist of parts of game-simulated scrimmages, it is mostly made up of other events (think the NBA or WNBA All-Star Skill Contests the night before the All-Star Game). But it is the first opportunity for the community to see the teams in action and the first opportunity for the players to take the court in front of fans, so the excitement from that alone should liven up Stran-Hardin Arena. Vs. ABC ...

The University of Alabama Adapted Athletics program's three teams (men's and women's wheelchair basketball and wheelchair tennis) competed in the 2022-23 season. All three won national championships. Banners on the lightposts outside of Stran-Hardin Arena display the number of national championships (not yet updated to reflect the most recent national championships) that Alabama Adapted Athletics teams have won  (photo by Elliott Lapin) Women's wheelchair basketball cruises to fourth consecutive national championship After finishing the 2022-2023 regular season with an 16-0 record in the National Wheelchair Basketball Association Intercollegiate Division (and a 23-2 overall record, the Alabama women's wheelchair basketball team was the top seed for the NWBA college national championship tournament, which was held at Stran-Hardin Arena on the University of Alabama campus. The Tide cruised to a 78-34 victory over the University of Arizona in the semifinal game on Mar...

Welcome to the Rolling Tide Blog! Throughout this academic year/season, I will use this blog to share news and follow the developments of the Alabama Adapted Athletics program . Wheelchair/adapted athletics is an interest and passion of mine, and prior to enrolling as an MBA student at the University of Alabama last fall (for a two-year program), I spent 5.5 years as a professional newspaper reporter from the Houston Chronicle Media Group (I also was born and raised in Houston). This is a hobby/side project to cover a highly successful program within an interest area of mine, and to make use of my journalism experience. I do not have a specific plan or vision for this blog other than being a valuable source for information on the Alabama Adapted Athletics program. So, we will see where this heads and how it unfolds. I'm excited to go on this journey and to have you along for it! *While I am a student at the University of Alabama, I am not a part of the Alabama Adapted Athletics Pro...