On Friday, the brothers of the UA chapter of Pi Kappa Phi fraternity teamed up with the UA Wheelchair Athletics program, including the 2010 national champion women’s wheelchair basketball team to host “Push Alabama-Campaign for Awareness” on the Quad. The event ran from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The wheelchair athletes showed students who passed by different wheelchairs and athletic training chairs that they use for conditioning, basketball, tennis, track and field and kayaking.
This event was the first one that the two organizations have hosted together. Pi Kappa Phi Philanthropy Chairman Brian Sicner said the event was a success.
“It’s our first one,” Sicner said. “Our main goal as of now is to establish a connection with these athletes.”
Push America is the main philanthropy that the fraternity works with, so Sicner said they wanted to work more closely with individuals.
“We are both trying to get stuff done and we wanted to show the campus that there is no real difference between us,” he said.
Brent Hardin, director of wheelchair athletics, was on hand and said he very excited to be a part of the event.
“We are always willing to help promote wheelchair athletics,” Hardin said. We wanted to show the different uses of the chairs and how they apply to different sports.”
Pi Kappa Phi’s public relations chairman Phillip Dean said this was a special event for the fraternity because and gave them a chance to build better relationships.
“We also wanted to give people a chance to meet the teams, give insight on how they live and raise awareness about disabilities.”
Another high note for the women’s team was that they were celebrating winning their second national championship. The Crimson Tide dominated the University of Illinois 66-36, which head coach Margaret Stran said was fabulous.
“We played better this year,” Stran said. “We just executed and played really well.”
Sophomore Emily Seelenfreund said this year’s championship was a little better than the one she won as a freshman.
“We worked really hard this year,” she said. “The team was closer and we played our best game in the national championship.”
Hardin said he was just happy to be a part of the team.
“I’m happy to be their coach,” Hardin said. “It was great. We have been around for seven years, and we have become the model program in the country.”
“We have a lot of truly amazing athletes and we take pride in our program and what we have built here.”
Stand out players for the Tide included Janet McLachlan, who scored 12 points, Cindy Ouelette, Annika Zeyen and Emily Seelenfreund, who all scored 10 points for the Tide.
“It felt pretty good to win,” Annika Zeyen said. “We had a good season and our goal coming into the year was to win a national championship.”
“We played our strongest defensive game,” Zeyen said. “Winning is always nice.”
