Wounded veterans at Walter Reed give wheelchair lacrosse a try [View all]

By Mark Berman, Published: September 24

They had strapped on gloves, donned helmets, grabbed their lacrosse sticks and lobbed balls around the gym Tuesday in preparation for a scrimmage. And then they got one key piece of instruction:

It’s better to throw the ball over a teammate’s head than at his feet, especially if, like the small group gathered at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center lacrosse clinic, the teammate is in a wheelchair.

Wounded and recovering service members lined up Tuesday on a court in Bethesda to see how the fast-paced sport commonly played on a field would translate to two wheels in a room. ... Sports such as wheelchair basketball and wheelchair rugby are better known; they’ve become staples of the Paralympic Games. Wheelchair lacrosse, by comparison, is a little less established.
....

“We have taken the men’s field game and tried to translate it, as best we could, to wheelchairs,” said Ryan Baker, who co-founded Wheelchair Lacrosse USA in 2009.

Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post - Matthew Grashen, a 23-year-old Marine who was injured by a makeshift bomb last month in Afghanistan, participates in a wheelchair lacrosse clinic at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.