COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO – The Junior Division Executive Committee of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association (NWBA) has announced December Power Rankings for Varsity and Prep levels of play.

Junior Division teams have entered action with many exciting tournaments and chances for several inter-conference challenges. The first ranking of the year sees the Charlotte Rollin’ Hornets squad edge out a powerful Bennett Blazers squad for the top position. While Bennett won the Queen City Invitational in November, Charlotte bounced back convincingly with two wins against the Blazers in December. The defending National Champion Lakeshore Lakers are also off to a strong start with the No. 3 ranking, while Courage Kenny Rolling Timberwolves round out the top four after winning the 39th Annual Courage Kenny Classic Tournament in November as well as the hotly contested KC Crossroads Tournament in December.

In the Prep Division, Austin, TX’s own ATX Ability squad is off to a scorching 13-0 start and brought home the Courage Kenny Classic championship to sit atop the rankings. LWSRA’s Hawks are also scorching hot and got home the Kansas City Crossroads prep title to sit in second place in the rankings. The Kansas City Kings slide into the third position with a record that includes a second-place finish at Courage Kenny and a split with the tough WASA Eagles, who sit in fourth. The Bennett Blazers prep has an experienced squad that showed out at the Queen City Tournament to earn an early 4th spot in the rankings. With powerful squads from Dallas, WASA, and Charlotte all lurking, the prep division promises great competition in the coming months and shows that the Junior Division's future is bright!

The holiday break will undoubtedly be punctuated by dreams of tournaments to come in the new year as the NWBA Junior Division season kicks into high gear, and teams take aim at the National Tournament in Richmond. Congratulations to all the teams!

The top 16 ranked Varsity teams will be invited to play in the NWBA Varsity Wheelchair Basketball National Championships. Varsity teams ranked 17-32 may receive an invite to participate in the NWBA Varsity Invitational Wheelchair Basketball Tournament.

The top 16 ranked teams from Prep are offered an invitation to participate in the NWBA Prep Wheelchair Basketball National Championships. If a team does not accept their bid for postseason play, invitations will be sent to the next team, in order of ranking, until all tournaments are filled with teams. 

The rankings are developed monthly by the Junior Division Ranking Working Group, a diverse group of team representatives and coaches within the Junior Division. For any questions, please reach out to the Junior Division Executive Committee (nwba.org/juniordivision)