Help Wheelchair Basketball Team Get To National Tournament

The Fairfax Falcons wheelchair basketball team is proving not only can they play in spite of disabilities, but they can play really well. After all, they've won their third straight Eastern Conference Championship title and are heading to the National Wheelchair Basketball Tournament in Louisville, Kentucky April 12-15. But they do need a little support from the community to get there.

The team has started a GoFundMe page to help their families pay for the cost of travel, hotel and other expenses for the tournament. The team hopes to raise $8,000 and is close to that goal as of Friday morning.

Fairfax Falcons is open to kids ages four to 22 who have not graduated high school and have a disability such as paralysis, amputation, radiological evidence of limb shortening, spina bifida, a spinal cord injury or cerebral palsy. Not all kids may use wheelchairs outside of the game, but they must use them when playing.

Just because the kids are handicapped or disabled doesn't mean it's any less competitive than traditional basketball. The team will travel around the Mid-Atlantic region for monthly tournaments, WTOP reported. They first qualified for nationals four years ago. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here.)

“I think we can make it and win the championship,” Kidus Ali, a point guard and student at Hayfield Secondary School, told WTOP. Ali, a seventh-grader, has been competing since first grade and hopes to make it to the Paralympics someday.

According to WTOP, the team is the only one in the greater DC, Baltimore and Richmond areas. It costs just $25 for Fairfax County residents and $35 for non-county residents to participate.

To stay up to date with the team's progress at nationals, visit the Fairfax Falcons website or Facebook page.

Check out the team in action at the Eastern Conference Tournament below:

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Image via GoFundMe