Dreams in Motion brings hoops, hope on wheels
By Suzanne Werre
Editor
There were a few quick basketball games played on the Comet court this past Wednesday morning, but there were two players out there who were "ringers" of sorts, their speed and prowess on the court far exceeding their opponents and teammates.
Those ringers were Derrick Bisnett, a Bismarck Century graduate, and Mike Kaip, a Mandan High School graduate, and they were at the school this past Wednesday morning to show off their hoops skills and inform the Underwood students and staff about Dreams In Motion; in particular, telling them and showing them what it’s like to play basketball without the use of one’s legs.
After playing basketball through his youth growing up in Bismarck, Bisnett, who was born with spina bifida, eventually lost the use of his legs because of nerve damage when he was 16-years-old, and found himself using a wheelchair to get around.
But he wasn’t willing to give up the sport he loved, he told the crowd at the school last Wednesday.
So every weekend he and his family would get in the car, drive to Minneapolis, so he could play in a wheelchair basketball league, then drive back to Bismarck so he could be back at school at Bismarck Century Monday morning.
He now lives in Wisconsin, goes to college at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, and has won two national championships in wheelchair basketball and was voted collegiate player of the year.
