GRUSS TO PLAY ON NATIONAL BASKETBALL TEAM

Shelby Gruss, who as a Senior played on the 2010 Girls Basketball STATE RUNNER-UP BASKETBALL TEAM, has just been chosen to play on the 2017 U. S. Women’s Wheelchair Basketball National Team, following a 3-day selection (tryout) camp at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Their team will compete in the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation America’s Zonal Qualifier this summer.

Shelby was a key player on the 2010 Bishop Luers Girls basketball team that eventually won Sectional, Regional, Semi-state and played in the IHSAA State Finals right here in Fort Wayne. Unfortunately, Shelby wasn’t able to play the second half of her senior year. She was on Christmas vacation on a skiing/snowboarding trip in Ohio when a tragic accident happened on the snowy slopes. She became paralyzed from the waist down. She has no use of her legs, and has been confined to a wheelchair.

But Shelby Gruss is a fighter! She was always mentally tough way before the accident. That toughness has never left her. She came back to the team that season, and gave all the help and encouragement that she could muster, day in and day out, all the way through the Luers’ State Finals drive. In fact, Shelby gave an inspiring, most uplifting impromptu talk to the girls about playing hard. There wasn’t a dry eye in the locker room by the time she was done. Though they ended up losing in overtime, the Luers girls could not have played any harder. They wanted to win the State Championship for Shelby. And the next year in 2011, they did!

Please keep Shelby in your prayers, and if you know her, please do give her a “shout out” for good luck before her exciting adventure! Shelby never lets anything get in the way of her goals, she is so determined!

Shelby currently competes in Wheelchair Basketball at the University of Illinois. She is in Graduate School majoring in Ag Production.