MEADVILLE— Basketball was never a big part of Jim Glatch's life during his high school years.

It's his livelihood now.

The 1979 Butler graduate was named head coach of the U.S. under-23 wheelchair basketball team that will compete at the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation Junior World Championships July 4 to 14 in Paris.

Glatch is in his 14th season as varsity wheelchair basketball coach at Edinboro University.

"I never played organized basketball in high school,"Glatch said. "I was a baseball guy. Intramural basketball, playing pick-up games with my buddies, that was about it for me."

Glatch played American Legion baseball for Prospect, walked on and made the baseball team at Pitt-Bradford before an injury curtailed his career.

Always the coach of his intramural softball and basketball teams in college, Glatch began doing volunteer work with adaptive athletic programs after graduating from Pitt with degrees in math and psychology.

He moved to Meadville in 1984 and worked with Special Olympics and youth athletic programs there. He joined the Pennsylvania Special Olympics staff in 1989.

"I ran sporting events and taught people how to coach Special Olympics," Glatch said. "I learned a lot from that job."

Edinboro hired Glatch to coach its wheelchair basketball team in 1995. The program began in 1985 and had produced one win in 10 years.

Edinboro is one of 10 universities that offers wheelchair basketball as a varsity sport.

"Our schedule parallels the regular NCAAbasketball schedule,"Glatch said. "We play 32 games and our national tournament is in March.

"I put the team in the college division my second year at Edinboro and we were going up against schools offering full scholarships. It would have been like Edinboro's men's basketball team playing Duke or Pitt."

Glatch established a small scholarship program at Edinboro. By his fourth year, he had his first recruit. He had his first 20-win season in 1999 and has had only two losing campaigns since.

Two years ago, Glatch guided the Fighting Scots to the national championship game, where it lost to Southwest Minnesota State.

In 2001, he was selected as an assistant coach for the U-23 national team that won the bronze medal in Brazil.

The IWBFJunior World Championships are held every four years. Glatch didn't coach for the 2005 team, which won the gold medal.

"Eight coaches applied for the head coaching job for the 2009 team,"Glatch said. "I was selected with the idea I'd be moved to coach the U.S. senior team in the 2012 or 2016 Paralympics.

"Our men's senior team finished fourth in this year's Paralympics in Beijing. That was disappointing."

Edinboro begins its 2008-09 wheelchair basketball season Nov. 14 and 15 with five games against teams from the Southern Division at Oklahoma State University.

"While we're down there, I'll be using those games as a forum to evaluate players for the national team,"Glatch said.

The closest college varsity wheelchair basketball program to Edinboro is the University of Illinois.

"We do a lot of traveling by chartered bus and I'll see pretty much every team during the season,"Glatch said. "The first week of March, I'll invite 24 players to our national tryout camp in Birmingham (Ala.).

"We'll run three-a-day practices for four days and I'll select my 12-member team."

Glatch said 12 countries participate in the junior world championships.

"Wheelchair basketball isn't much different from regular basketball, except that there is no lateral movement on the court," he said. "We run a motion offense, develop good chair skills, look to set picks for open shots and layups."

Glatch finds players for his Edinboro team through junior wheelchair basketball programs, adult teams in the region that use younger players, his own camps and through veterans hospitals.

"The only junior program in Pennsylvania is in Philadelphia," he said. "As a result, only two of my 10 players at Edinboro are from Pennsylvania.

"You have to have some type of lower extremity disability to be eligible. One of my players is from Chicago and suffered a spinal cord injury in Afghanistan."

Wheelchair basketball is not a gimmick sport.

"It's intense,"Glatch said. "Our goal is to win the national championship. Hopefully, I'll build a strong national team along the way."