Mountain Brook's Kirkpatrick to sign with UA to play wheelchair basketball

Mountain Brook senior Will Kirkpatrick, a current member of the Lakeshore Lakers wheelchair basketball team, will sign with the University of Alabama on Thursday to continue his basketball career.

Kirkpatrick has spent the past 10 years playing at Lakeshore Foundation in Homewood. In April, Kirkpatrick helped the Lakers to a third-place finish at the Junior National Invitational Tournament in Louisville, Kentucky, and he was named a National Wheelchair Basketball Association second team Academic All-American.

Kirkpatrick will start classes in August and begin practice with the Alabama team about a month into the fall semester.

Alabama has both a men’s and women’s wheelchair basketball team. The women are coming off a national championship in 2015, beating Illinois for the title, their fourth national championship. The men won a national championship in 2013.