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Freshman Quinn Meyer dribbles the ball during a game against the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign on Oct. 26, 2024 at College Park Center.\u00a0<\/p>\n
File photo \/ Samarie Goffney<\/a><\/p>\n Since 1976, UTA\u2019s wheelchair basketball teams have called the Physical Education Building and the Maverick Activities Center home. The P.E. Building\u2019s front-facing exterior, marked with the words \u201cHome of The Movin\u2019 Mavs,\u201d is a modest testament to the dozens of banners earned over the years. <\/p>\n Now, the Movin\u2019 Mavs\u2019 and the Lady Movin\u2019 Mavs\u2019 accolades and success as the \u201cwinningest\u201d teams at UTA will be boasted in the rafters of College Park Center. <\/p>\n On Jan. 20, UTA\u2019s Division of Intercollegiate Athletics officially announced that the two teams would join the department as the first Division I wheelchair basketball teams at UTA. <\/p>\n While the teams have occasionally competed and hosted tournaments at the center, this move will solidify it as their home court to defend. <\/p>\n \u201cThey’re athletes. They’re an incredibly successful sports program, and it just makes more sense to have them be a part of Athletics,\u201d Athletics director Jon Fagg said. \u201cWe want to elevate their student athlete experience so they can play tournaments and games in the CPC and just be part of the department, really exciting.\u201d <\/p>\n The success in question comes from 12 national championships, multiple undefeated seasons, nine MVPs and 36 Paralympians, one of whom sits at the helm of the Movin\u2019 Mavs. <\/p>\n Aaron Gouge, Movin\u2019 Mavs head coach, said a big part of this move came from the support of Fagg and President Jennifer Cowley. He said this transition will be beneficial not only for the university and its program but for the sport itself, hoping that it will become a trend across the league. <\/p>\n The move to the UTA athletic department had been long-awaited, a dream of Jim Hayes, founder and head coach of the team, then called the Freewheelers, Gouge said. <\/p>\n Hayes\u2019 program evolved with the help of the late Robert \u201cSnake\u201d LeGrand, UTA\u2019s first Black men\u2019s basketball head coach. It became the Movin\u2019 Mavs in 1988, when it was formally recognized as an intercollegiate athletic program. <\/p>\n \u201cWhen he [Hayes] started the team, he wanted the team to be seen as equal college athletes with the able-bodied teams, and it’s super exciting for that to happen,\u201d Gouge said. <\/p>\n The Lady Movin\u2019 Mavs team was founded in 2013 with the help of current head coach Morgan Wood and former Movin\u2019 Mavs head coach Doug Garner. The team accounts for two of the national championships under the wheelchair programs’ belts. <\/p>\n Wood, who was the first Lady Maverick to join the team, reflected on the historical moments and changes over the past decade that the program has seen. <\/p>\n \u201cIt’s another step forward for our men and women’s programs, which is pretty amazing,\u201d she said. \u201cBut the biggest thing that goes kind of unnoticed is how greatly it affects our student athletes, when they’re finally in a position to feel like they’re a student athlete on campus.\u201d <\/p>\n College Park Center sits\u00a0on the corner of West Second Street and Spaniolo Drive. Men\u2019s and women\u2019s wheelchair basketball will join the Athletics department as Division I teams.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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