Junior Hotwheels Win National Championship

The TIRR Memorial Hermann Junior Hotwheels basketball team scored the National Wheelchair Basketball Association’s National Championship title last Sunday. The team beat the Blazesports Jr. Hawks 62-56.  

The Junior Hotwheels team is made of middle and high school students from the Houston area and Southeast Texas region, including Peter Berry, a sophomore at The Emery/Weiner School. Peter was named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the championship game.

“It feels great that all of our hard work me and my teammates have put in along with our coach who was there the entire step of the way,” Peter said.

Peter Berry, a sophomore at The Emery/Weiner School, was named MVP of the championship game.

The Hotwheels are part of TIRR Memorial Hermann’s Adaptive Sports Program, which launched in 1997 and includes a junior and two adult basketball teams as well as a rugby team. The program has helped many members improve their athletic abilities, increase self-confidence and, over the years, multiple players have received full athletic scholarships to attend universities that have collegiate wheelchair basketball programs.

The Hotwheels team previously won the National Championship Title in 2015, and has received the Courage Center Award of Merit for Outstanding Leadership from the National Wheelchair Basketball Association.

Editor's Note: In 2011, Peter, along with his siblings Aaron and Willa, was in the car with their parents Robin and John, driving home from a vacation when a distracted driver hit them head-on. Neither Robin nor Josh survived the tragic crash. Peter and Aaron were left paralyzed from the waists down; Willa escaped with broken bones. The Berrys have been involved in a movement to pass legislation in Texas banning hand-held cell phone use, including texting, while driving. Read more about their powerful initiatives here. The texting ban was passed in Texas last year.