Sgt. Lester Perez has always enjoyed shooting some hoops, but he thought those days were behind him after he suffered critical injuries last year while deployed with the 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team. An IED explosion broke both of Perez's legs and, after undergoing eight surgeries at Walter Reed Medical Center, he was sent back to Joint Base Lewis-McChord and assigned to the Warrior Transition Battalion (WTB).

Part of the WTB's rehabilitation comes in the way of adaptive sports. One sport offered is wheelchair basketball, which is open to any WTB Soldier who wants to try it out. Perez, who acknowledged that he will never be able to play typical basketball again, took to wheelchair basketball immediately and began to thrive with each basket sunk.

Wheelchair basketball practices are held Mondays and Wednesdays at Wilson Fitness Center on JBLM North and the sleek, sporty wheelchairs are delivered courtesy of a partnership with MetroParks Tacoma's Adaptive Recreation program, which is a certified Paralympic Sport Club by the US Olympic Committee. MetroParks' staff also runs the practice and helps to teach new players the rules of the game.

Several Soldiers, including Perez and Spc. Daniel Biskey from JBLM, were lucky enough to attend a Wounded Warrior Clinic and Tournament on Dec. 28 at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) with one of the best wheelchair basketball programs in the country.  The school's team, called the Movin' Mavs, has won seven National Championships in the past two decades and has had a number of veterans play on its teams throughout the years.

"It meant a lot to us to have the warriors here since we currently have four Army guys on our team who (are) enrolled here," explained Movin' Mavs' coach Doug Garner. Garner, who has coached the sport for almost 20 years, will also serve as the Army team's coach at the Warrior Games, which will be held May 16 to 21 at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.

The second annual Warrior Games, which is a joint effort between the U.S. Olympic Committee and the Department of Defense, will feature 200 wounded, ill and injured servicemembers from all branches of the military. Athletes will compete in several sports events, from shooting and archery to swimming and track and field, and, of course, wheelchair basketball.

"It's cool that part of my job right now is to do this," joked Perez, who said that he tries his best to schedule any other appointments around basketball practices. "I love this. I play here, and I play with Team Titans in Tacoma."

In April, both Perez and Biskey, who were specially selected for the national team after try outs, will head back to UTA for a weeklong training session in order to prepare for the competition in May.

The last six months on the court with wheels have given Perez a sense of direction - in the near future, when he leaves the Army, he plans to utilize the GI Bill and attend UTA ... where he can get his degree and play ball with the Mavs.