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By Carey Reeder | Managing Editor

Just a handful of months after starting the sport, Jemison native Garrett Guthrie can now call himself a national champion after the Lakeshore Lakers claimed their third consecutive National Wheelchair Basketball Association Junior National Championship on April 6.

The program out of the Lakeshore Foundation in Birmingham won four games in three days in Richmond, Virginia to win the Junior Wheelchair Basketball National Championship.

“It feels great, and it is kind of unreal,” Guthrie said. “You keep playing until you lose, and we just could not lose.”

Guthrie, born with cerebral palsy, is a sophomore at Bibb County High School. He was introduced to wheelchair basketball through the Lakeshore Foundation, a deeply rooted organization in Birmingham providing opportunities for those with physical disabilities, just last year. Guthrie not only chose a great sport to pursue, he also an elite program to join as well with coaches that have a pedigree in the sport. Head coach Savannah Gardner and assistant coach Rashad Bennett both played collegiate wheelchair basketball and have been a lot of help in getting Guthrie acclimated with the sport.

“They are good people and always checking in on you,” Guthrie said. “They know what they are doing and help us get set up for college, and it is really great (working with them.)”

Gardner and Guthrie’s connection is deeper than a player-coach relationship — it expands to the obstacles each of them face on the basketball court and in everyday life. In wheelchair basketball there are positions like point guard, but what really determines a player’s position is their class.

The classes are determined by how able the person is on the court. For example, if an able-bodied person has an incident and loses a leg, they would be rated a four and a half class because they have no upper body restrictions. The lower the class, the more restrictions a player has. Teams can only have 14 points, or class points, on the court at once.

Guthrie’s cerebral palsy puts him at a one class, but he is still able to do things on the basketball court that makes him a valuable asset to the team. Gardner is also a one class player and has the same type of cerebral palsy as Guthrie. That connection to the sophomore allows her to really understand what things suit him best on the court and how to be most effective.

“We have a lot of connections on how we play our game and what we need to do to get it done,” Guthrie said. “It is good that I have her teaching me how to get it done in my position.”

The Lakers have four seniors on the team that have been with the program for a long time that are graduating and moving on to play collegiate wheelchair basketball. They have all helped elevate Guthrie’s game since he had been on the team, but now it is his turn to take the reins. The goal for the Lakers is to not let the performance dip once those four seniors move on, and to do that, it will take young players like Guthrie to step up and fill those voids left behind.

“I came off the bench (this season) in every game, and I did not have to do too much,” Guthrie said. “When people graduate, you just have to work harder and step up into a position. You have a lot more responsibility now to take care of things.”

Guthrie and the Lakers will start their preparations for the new season this fall during the summer holding a team practice once a week and then transitioning to more practices in preparations for the first tournament in October. He has also been enjoying the Wellness Center at the Bibb County Medical Center playing pickup basketball with other high schoolers, earning respect amongst his new peers each game he plays.