Latina Macklin was one of many athletes taking part in a basketball clinic Tuesday at Julian's gym. Small groups of about seven or eight players took part in drills on and off the court.

Nothing unusual there except for one thing: All the athletes were in wheelchairs.

The Illinois High School Association's wheelchair basketball clinic at Julian wasn't the first one in the area.

Taft hosted a similar clinic two weeks ago that drew 22 wheelchair athletes, and 21 students attended the clinic at Julian.

Kathleen Reeves is the IHSA coordinator for wheelchair basketball. She is a volunteer and, along with University of Illinois wheelchair basketball coach Michael Frogley, helped the IHSA develop a model for how wheelchair basketball programs should be run. Illinois is the pilot state for the program, now in its fourth year.

The IHSA clinics are part of that grass-roots model to attract more wheelchair athletes. Another part of that model has Reeves going from school to school, talking to athletic directors, special-education teachers, principals and parents looking for students who are eligible for wheelchair basketball. The next IHSA clinic is April 17 in Carbondale.

''The biggest obstacle is getting the word out,'' Frogley said. ''We just overlook kids with disabilities, and we need to teach the educators whom to look for to play wheelchair basketball.''

Macklin was one of those students who became interested. A senior at Dunbar, Macklin will attend Northern Illinois in the fall. She got involved in wheelchair basketball through Mayor Daley's office for people with disabilities, and she played in S.M.A.R.T. Games IX last year at Du Sable.

''I have a walking disability, and the experience of playing wheelchair basketball was a good experience for me,'' said Macklin, who has cerebral palsy. ''Being physically challenged and getting involved in any physical activity shows there's no limitations.'' Wheelchair basketball is Macklin's first athletic activity, and she has been playing it for two years. Her self-confidence has grown because of the sport.

''I was always a shy kind of person, but getting out and participating gives people like me the chance to participate in something,'' Macklin said. ''Participating in a sport can be hard for people with disabilities. But wheelchair basketball is the most comfortable sport, and it gives me some kind of insight on how to play basketball.''

A common misconception about wheelchair basketball is that the sport is affiliated with Special Olympics. That is not true. Wheelchair basketball, like other wheelchair sports, fall under the Paralympics,
and the national organization is the National Wheelchair Basketball Association. (NWBA).

''We really hope the kids who are at the clinics can get on the roster for the U.S. junior national team,'' Reeves said. ''There are also summer camps for wheelchair basketball and college scholarships."

Jennifer Warkins is an example of how far wheelchair basketball players can go.

Warkins plays for Illinois' women's wheelchair basketball team that just won its third consecutive NWBA national championship.