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The university partnered with the Whitewater Fire Department to honor the players.

Individual national champions include Christian Patzka and Shelvin Garrett II for men’s track and field and Hayden Gough for women’s gymnastics.

The Warhawk men’s wheelchair basketball team earned its 14th national title by winning the National Wheelchair Basketball Association Men’s College Championship at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall, Minn. on March 14-16.

The team ended the tournament with a 74-67 victory against Arizona, bringing home the program’s first national win since 2016.

UW-Whitewater alumni and the team’s current coach, Jake Williams was excited to bring home a national win after his second year of coaching.

“It’s pretty special, especially because we’re used to winning here and it’s been a while, so it just makes it even better,” Williams said.

Sophomore AJ Fitzpatrick, 19, and Senior Talen Jourdan, 24, are currently on the Warhawks men’s wheelchair basketball team.

“It was a super nice opportunity to be able to end the eight-year drought,” Fitzpatrick said. “We’ve been a powerhouse in the sport so to go through one of the longest droughts that we’ve had in a long time and getting the school back on track feels really nice.”

Fitzpatrick, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is majoring in human performance and minoring in strength and conditioning.

Jourdan, 24, from Brown Deer, is a general business major.

“Winning nationals was a really cool way to end my basketball career at Whitewater. I’m super happy that we were able to pull it off,” Jourdan said.

Rainy weather couldn’t stop the parade of champions taking place, and the players were glad for it.

“It’s cool to be able to be celebrated like our able-bodied counterparts. It’s nice to have the same appreciation as able-bodied sports,” Fitzpatrick said.

“It makes us feel important too, because we’re technically a club sport,” Jourdan said.

Although the team doesn’t reap the same benefits of a division team, the players are treated well and are supported by the school, Fitzpatrick said.

Williams agrees. The community “push us and promote us, it’s great to get the support,” Williams said.

When it comes to supporting and promoting adaptive sports, funding helps, Fitzpatrick said.

“Funding brings more athletes here to help us compete with the D1 schools and since full scholarships really motivate some students, I’d say funding and overall support matter.” Fitzpatrick was recruited while he was in high school.

When it came to winning nationals, Fitzpatrick believes having several seniors on the team, including Jourdan, helped everyone realize they needed to “bunker” down.

“We realized it was our last dance, so we wanted to go and show everyone what we have,” Fitzpatrick said.

Jourdan agreed, noting that the seniors leaving motivated the team to play more seriously. “It pushed us to keep each other as a different level of accountability,” Jourdan said. “It gave us confidence, moving forward. We’ve shown ourselves that we can be that team that locks in and gets the win,” Fitzpatrick said.

By competing, Fitzpatrick hopes to show kids with physical disabilities what they’re able to accomplish.

Paralympic Games

Dreams are being made as Fitzpatrick and Jourdan make their way to the Paralympic Games this summer, accompanied by Warhawks coach Williams.

They are not the only Warhawk ties to join the Paralympics USA team. Half of the 12-player team has played at UW-Whitewater.

Milton native and UW-Whitewater graduate John Boie is also joining the team, along with alumni Jeromie Meyer of Woodbine, Iowa, and Nate Hinze of Oshkosh.

Warhawks coach Williams was a part of the paralympic USA team in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro and in 2021 in Tokyo, and won gold both times.

The rest of the 2024 Paralympic men’s wheelchair basketball team, coached by Robb Taylor, includes Steve Serio of Westbury, New York; Brian Bell of Birmingham, Alabama; Trevon Jenifer of Huntington, Maryland; Paul Schulte of Ann Arbor, Michigan; Jorge Salazar of Delano, California; and Fabian Romo of Chicago.

Alternates are Peter Berry of Houston; Aaron Gouge of Grand Prairie, Texas; Ryan Neiswender of Lebanon, Pennsylvania; and Jorge Sanchez of Oakland, California.

The 2024 Paralympic Games are Aug. 28-Sept. 8 in Paris.

“I’m super excited and just thankful for everybody that supports us,” Jourdan said.

The players will attend training camps throughout the summer to train for the Paralympics.

“We’ll still scream, cheer, train and push each other here with the rest of the team here at Whitewater, but yeah, we’ll get to train hard now,” Williams said. “Hopefully we’ll perform at our best in August.”