Nov. 7, 2013
Wounded Warrior Amputee Softball Team Website
LAS VEGAS (UNLVRebels.com) - For the second straight year the UNLV softball program will welcome back the Wounded Warrior Amputee Softball Team to Las Vegas and Eller Media Stadium on Veteran's Day weekend for a pair of games. The WWAST will play two contests on Sunday, Nov. 11, against the Mandalay Bay All-Stars and the MGM All-Stars. The first game is scheduled for a first pitch at noon, while the second one will follow at approximately 1:30 pm.
Admission to the doubleheader is free and the public is encouraged to attend.
This will be the fourth stop for the WWAST at UNLV and the Rebels' on-campus softball stadium since 2011. The squad made its initial visit on Oct. 14, 2011, before a pair of outings in 2012 - Oct. 12 and Nov. 11. Initially, the team would only practice at the facility before playing games around the Las Vegas Valley until it squared off in a doubleheader at EMS in their last trip.
Two members of UNLV's softball coaching staff - head coach Lisa Dodd and assistant coach Caitlin Lever - will suit up with the WWAST on Sunday.
The WWAST is the brainchild of David Van Sleet, a Department of Veterans Affairs southwest prosthetics manager, who has worked in prosthetics for over 30 years and played softball for about the same length of time. "When the war started in 2003, I saw guys coming back that looked pretty fit," said Van Sleet to UNLVRebels.com in a previous interview. "I started to keep tabs on who played sports, who was athletic, and how they did their workouts. I came up with this crazy idea, `You know, I think we can field a softball team from guys that played baseball before.'"
This team is unlike any softball team that you've ever seen. The team members are all veterans of the United States military that have lost limbs post-9/11, while serving in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
"We had about 250 apply and we whittled it down through their physical therapists and prosthetists. We trained for a week and we kept about 10 guys. We found about 10 more guys from around the country that were even more into it; a little bit more competitive and with a little bit more ability. We've got about 20 guys to choose from and we travel with 11. We travel about two or three times a month."
