Wheelin' Jazz prove a point (from 3/15/09 Salt Lake Tribune)

While March Madness is just beginning for most basketball teams, there is one local team that already is headed to its Final Four, the Wheelin' Jazz of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association.

The team is based out of the South Jordan clinic Neuroworx, which helps spinal cord patients. The idea behind a basketball team is to show newly injured patients there is life after injury.

The basketball team is doing a heck of a job at being role models, since they've reached the Final Four for the second year in a row. The NWBA, which has more than 200 teams at several different levels, is comprised of individuals out to prove that just because they have disabilities doesn't mean they can't be athletes -- let alone successful ones, as shown by the Wheelin' Jazz.

Last year, the Wheelin' Jazz lost in the semifinals. This week, when the Final Four begins in Denver, Colo., the fifth-ranked Jazz have a huge challenge to get to the title game, since they face top-ranked Arkansas in the semifinals. Second-ranked Orlando and third-ranked Dallas pair off in the other semifinal.

While coach Layne Mangum is hopeful for an upset, it's doubtful there is little that can happen next week to take the satisfaction the team feels after its successful season. The Jazz, who are associated with the Utah Jazz in name only, lost several of their top players and thought they were in for a rebuilding year.

Instead, they went 16-3, with two losses being to Golden State and the other to Dallas.

The Jazz avenged one loss to Golden State in the playoffs and also beat the Lakers, thereby allowing them to claim supremacy over California. Now all they need are two more wins to be the best in the country.

"If you had asked us at the beginning of the season if we could make a return trip to the Final Four, all of us would have answered that we were hopeful, but that it probably wouldn't happen," Mangum said.

They did so not only overcoming opponents on the court, but off the court too. The struggling economy has taken its toll on the group like many other sports teams. Instead of using a budget of $20,000 as they have in the past, the Jazz made do with a budget of closer to $10,000. They didn't travel as much and played more western teams to cut down on costs. Now they're hoping to come up with another $3,000 for next week's trip.

It's money the group sees as well-spent. Eventually, the rehab center wants to have a new building, separated by a glass wall. On one side will be the rehab center and on the other will be a gym where the wheelchair team and other groups can exercise.

"We want to show them the future isn't just sitting at home and being a couch potato the rest of their lives," Mangum said.

They've already succeeded at that mission.
Lya Wodraska lwodraska@sltrib.com