Nine current and former UW-Whitewater Warhawks to play for Team USA

Posted on: July 1, 2022

Editor’s note: The following information was provided by UW-Whitewater.

Continuing a proud tradition of producing international caliber wheelchair basketball players, the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater will be represented by nine current and former Warhawks on the latest roster of Team USA.

The players and coaches will compete in the 2022 International Wheelchair Basketball Federation America’s Cup in Sao Paulo, Brazil on July 9-19. The event serves as the qualifier for the 2022 world championships taking place Nov. 16-27, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Former Warhawks Men’s Wheelchair Basketball Coach Jeremy “Opie” Lade. (Courtesy of UW-Whitewater photos)

Christina Schwab, head Warhawks women’s Wheelchair Basketball coach, applauds her players as they climb the hill on Schwager Drive near Perkins Stadium for conditioning exercises in September. (UW-Whitewater photos)

Jeromie Meyer of the Warhawks Men’s Wheelchair Basketball Team, dribbles the ball to the basket during a tournament in November in Kachel Fieldhouse in Whitewater. (UW-Whitewater photos)

Mandy Willmore, a graduate student from Denver, of the Warhawks Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Team, shoots against the Illini. UW-Whitewater men’s and women’s wheelchair basketball teams hosted a weekend tournament featuring prominent teams from across the country on Friday, Nov. 19, 2021, and Saturday, Nov. 20, 2021. (UW-Whitewater photos/Craig Schreiner)

Current UW-Whitewater women’s coach Christina Schwab, who has won three Paralympic gold medals as a player and recently coached the American men to gold in Tokyo, will helm the women’s team as head coach. She’ll be assisted by alum Desiree Miller of Monroe, Wisconsin, a gold medal winner in Rio de Janeiro who earned a master’s degree in counseling in 2014.

Students Josie DeHart, a physical education major from Fruita, Colorado, and Mandy Willmore, MBA candidate from Rock Springs, Wisconsin, will join alum and bronze medal winner Lindsey Zurbrugg of Portland, Oregon, on the roster.

On the men’s Team USA roster, Warhawks include Talen Jourdan, a general business major from Deerfield, Wisconsin; Jeromie Meyer of Woodbine, Iowa, who graduated in May with a degree in education; alum Dylan Fischbach of Vermillion, South Dakota; and John Boie of Milton, Wisconsin, a UW-Whitewater alum from the Class of 2014 who also earned an MBA in 2019, and currently works as an academic adviser at the university.

“Our wheelchair basketball program at UW-Whitewater is truly powered by tradition,” said Jeremy “Opie” Lade, who is an alum, former player and coach, and also a Paralympic medalist. “Elite athletes and coaches have built this program to its current status — and elite athletes and coaches will continue to be produced and keep our tradition alive moving into the future. Being a Warhawk is something that is said with a great amount of pride.”

Collectively, the men’s and women’s wheelchair basketball teams at UW-Whitewater have won 16 national championships.