Local firefighters take on Wheelchair Bulls

Give it a try some time — shoot a few hoops while you're sitting in a chair.

It's really difficult, said Jason Wachal, a firefighter/paramedic with the Arlington Heights Fire Department who has fielded a team to take on the Chicago Wheelchair Bulls. The Buffalo Grove Fire Department is contributing a few players, too. The entire game will be played in wheelchairs.

Tipoff is 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15, at Miner School, 1101 E. Miner St., Arlington Heights. Admission is $5; $4 for senior citizens and students and $3 for children under 5. The game is a fundraiser for the Wheelchair Bulls, a nationally-ranked wheelchair team.

“We're no good at all,” said Wachal. “Those guys are exceptional athletes. We're lucky to get five baskets the entire game.”

But Wachal thinks it's a lot of fun to watch.

“It's like the Harlem Globetrotters,” he said. “Those guys can do whatever they want, and we're their patsies.”

The connection between the firefighters and the wheelchair athletes is Seth Goldberg, who is a checker at the Jewel at Rand and Arlington Heights roads, where the firefighters have been known to shop for the meals they cook at the station. He also is the organizer of Saturday's fundraiser for the wheelchair team.

The players on the wheelchair team are very skilled, and some of them are even Paralympics, said Goldberg, and reaching that level is still a dream of his.

“Basketball is my passion,” he said. I grew up watching it.” When he was 12 he finally got to play on a wheelchair team, then amazed his parents when he said he wanted to move up a level from the just-for-fun stuff to the more competitive Bulls.

Goldberg uses a wheelchair because of problems associated with Muscular Dystrophy. His hearing is almost negligible — he has a little hearing in one ear, and none in the other.

“I'm a lot better at the sport than I was, but I'm not to where I want to be,” said Goldberg. “I'm working very hard.”

For information about the team visit wheelchairbulls.com/.