Women's wheelchair basketball teams are few and far between in the United States.

Of the 200-plus teams comprising the National Wheelchair Basketball Association, only 11 are women's squads. And all 11 will be competing this week at Slippery Rock University's Aebersold Student Recreation Center.

SRU is hosting the 30th National Women's Wheelchair Basketball Tournament Thursday through Saturday. There will be 26 games played to determine the champion of the double-elimination tournament.

The Steel City Starz, a second-year women's wheelchair team and NWBA member, is the host team. The squad is based in Slippery Rock and plays its home games at the Aebersold Recreation Center.

"I put in a bid and made a proposal for the tournament to come here," said John Sikora of Freeport, the Starz coach. "I've always wanted to be involved in a national tournament, and this holds a lot of public relations value.

"This tournament will be a great way to network information about the sport and hopefully get more women in the region to participate."

The women's tournament rotates its site every year. This is the first time Pennsylvania has hosted the event.

Sikora is director of the tournament through Pittsburgh's HOPE Network, an organization that provides sports, fitness and recreation opportunities to people with disabilities.

Sikora is also director of the HOPE Network.

Teams coming to SRU include the University of Arizona, CAC of Los Angeles (1-6), the Lady Texans of Dallas, the Atlanta Rolling Glory, University of Alabama (5-3), Orlando Ice (2-3), University of Illinois (9-16), the Minnesota Rolling Gophers, RIC Express of Chicago (9-3), Washington D.C. and the Steel City Starz (0-8).

The University of Illinois won last year's tournament in Warm Springs, Ga.

The Starz are 0-12 - playing against nothing but men's teams - since the team was formed 18 months ago.

"We fully expect to win our first game in this tournament," Sikora said. "The records of these teams aren't very good because they've all played against primarily men's teams."

One Starz player, Norah Schneider of Slippery Rock, played for the Pittsburgh Steel Wheelers, a men's team, for seven years before joining the Starz.

"It'll be nice to play against teams of other women who are at our competitive level," Schneider said. "These games will raise awareness, and we need that."

Schneider was active in sports as a high school student, participating in softball and soccer, before damaging her spinal cord in an automobile accident at age 16.

She remained ambulatory with a cane but could no longer compete in able-bodied athletics.

"I knew of wheelchair basketball, but I always thought you had to be confined to a wheelchair to be eligible to play in these leagues," Schneider said.

She found out differently when she met Sikora in Harmarville while working with a charity nine years ago.

Schneider began playing competitive wheelchair basketball at age 25.

"It's totally changed my life," she said. "Being able to be competitive again renewed my self-confidence. It gave me back something that had been missing.

"Thank God the stars were aligned and I met John Sikora. I know there's other women who can play wheelchair basketball and don't realize it."

Games are played by college rules and consist of two 20-minute halves. Players are classified based on their disabilities. A Class 1 player can have no use of her abdominal muscles, for example, while a Class 2 player has a little more physical capability and a Class 3 player can be an amputee.

No NWBA team can have more than 12 class points on the court at any one time.

"That rule makes the teams even in terms of physical capability," Sikora said.

"We have players on our team with disabilities varying in degree. One has cerebral palsy. Some are single-leg amputees. Anyone with some type of injury or disability preventing her from being capable of playing able-bodied basketball is eligible," he added.

The Starz have nine players on their roster, including Schneider, Leah Gray of Mount Pleasant, Theresa Crytzer of Natrona Heights, Mary Fletcher of Pittsburgh, Tiffany Frey of Erie, Marci Galore of Allison Park, Diana Helt of the North Hills, Darcy McKiney of Meadville and Kelly Timms of Pittsburgh.

Schneider and Gray will be among the players trying out for the U.S. Paralympics team Sunday. Those tryouts run from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Sikora said some teams can average 35 points per game in the tournament. The more advanced teams can average in the 60s.

"Once the semifinals and championship game arrive, they will be high-scoring, highly skilled games," he said. "The pick-and-roll is critical in this game."

The Starz will begin the tournament with a 9 a.m. game with Atlanta Thursday. Two games will be played on neighboring courts throughout Thursday and Friday.

The championship game is at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Admission to all games and the national tryouts is free.