Sports Envoy
Sports Envoy Program

Carlie Cook

Wheelchair Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2016  –  Algeria
  • 2016  –  Morocco

Carlie Cook is a former basketball player at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for the Women’s Wheelchair Basketball team, who has most recently played for the Connecticut Spokebenders. She has competed at the national championship and was an alternate for the 2011 U25 USA team.

Parnes Cartwright

Wheelchair Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2015  –  Russia

Parnes Cartwright was the head coach as well as the executive director for the Miami Heat Wheel’s wheelchair basketball team. He played a crucial role in the documentary “The Rebound” in which he explains how he got involved in wheelchair basketball and Miami Heat Wheels.

Trooper Johnson

Wheelchair Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2015  –  Russia
  • 2016  –  Algeria
  • 2016  –  Morocco
  • 2018  –  Kuwait

Coach Johnson is a legendary NWBA member, showcase in the iconic symbol of the NWBA, as a NWBA Hall of Famer and Paralympian. As an athlete, Johnson is the only U.S. player to compete on 15 National Teams (1990-2004), and is widely acknowledged as the most prolific three-point shooter in NWBA history. His shooting accuracy led Team USA to the top of the medal platform for a total of nine gold medals and one silver medal. He also has two bronze medals as an athlete at the 1996 and 2000 Paralympic Games, and was a member of the 1992 and 2004 U.S. Paralympic teams.

Professionally, Johnson is the Sports Program Coordinator for the Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program in California, which includes being the head coach of the Junior Road Warriors Wheelchair Basketball Team. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Northern California Olympians & Paralympians. Johnson first found the sport of wheelchair basketball after being involved in a car accident at the age of 17 that left him paralyzed. After that, wheelchair basketball was all he knew. Coach Johnson resides in San Lorenzo, California. He and his wife, Megan, have a son Max, and triplets, Hank, Sam and Sophia.

Dr. Andrea Woodson-Smith

Wheelchair Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2013  –  China
  • 2015  –  Papua New Guinea
  • 2015  –  Australia
  • 2018  –  Botswana

Dr. Andrea Woodson-Smith is a full professor at North Carolina Central University specializing in adapted physical activity and sports and physical education pedagogy. She earned her PhD from Texas Woman’s University specializing in adapted physical education, MS from North Carolina Central University specializing in adapted physical education and a BS from James Madison University, Kinesiology where she also competed as a Division I women’s basketball athlete.

She received an invite to try out for the American Basketball League (ABL) and also tried out for the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). She was a volunteer assistant women’s basketball coach for Texas Woman’s University and an Assistant Women’s Basketball Coach for Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills, IL, an assistant varsity girls’ basketball coach and JV volleyball coach for East Chapel Hill High School and JV volleyball coach and assistant varsity volleyball coach for Waynesboro High School.

She participated in the 2003 and 2011 ParaPan American Games, 2006 and 2010 and 2012 U.S Paralympic team. She has also participated as the Vice Chair of the Women’s Division, Chair of the Youth Development Committee of the Women’s Division, Committee member of the High Performance Committee and currently member of the ADM and High Performance Committees and serves as a Sports Envoy for the U.S. Department of State.

During her spare time, she is an advocate for colon cancer, children’s cancer and equality for all girls and women in sports and a 7th grade girls Life Group Leader for New Hope Church

Rose Hollermann

Wheelchair Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2018  –  Botswana

Paralympic Experience:
Two-time Paralympian (2012, 2016); One-time medalist (1 gold)
Paralympic Games Rio 2016 , gold
Paralympic Games London 2012, 4th
World Championship Experience
Most recent: 2018 – 6th
Years of competition: 2018

Personal: In 2001, Hollermann and her family were involved in a car accident that took the lives of two of her brothers and caused her to be partially paralyzed from the waist down. As part of her rehabilitation, she was introduced to swimming at the Courage Center in Minneapolis. From there, she tried sled hockey, track and field, archery, cross-country skiing and wheelchair basketball. She discovered her talent and passion for wheelchair basketball. In 2011, she became one of the youngest players on the U.S. women’s wheelchair basketball team at age 15. Since then, she has excelled in her career, playing collegiate basketball at the University of Texas at Arlington and leading Team USA to Paralympic gold in 2016….Daughter of John and Michelle Hollermann…Has three brothers: Shane, Ethan, and Seth Hollermann…Hobbies include fishing, hunting, basketball, sled hockey, photography, listening to music.