Wheelchair Basketball Takes Stevenson Grad to Top of Sports World

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Byline: Patricia Babcock McGraw

When Stevenson High School graduate Jennifer Warkins made the newspapers for helping the U.S. women's wheelchair basketball team win a gold medal at the Paralympic Games in Athens, her family was inundated with questions.

"My sister (Deanna) works at Stevenson, and I guess a lot of people were coming up to her and going, 'What happened to Jennifer? Is Jennifer OK?'" said Warkins, who spoke at her alma mater Friday as part of Wheel Awareness Week. "They said they didn't know I had been in an accident."

Well, that's because Warkins wasn't in an accident.

Warkins, who graduated from Stevenson in 1996 and was the starting small forward for the girls basketball team during its run to back-to-back IHSA state championships in 1995 and 1996, can walk and even run - although only straight ahead. Lateral movement is a problem, as are any …