Noelle Schlesselman of Macomb knew she was living the dream.

As a young assistant coach for the USA Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Team she not only participated in the 2004 Athens Paralympic games but helped her team defeat the three-time defending Canadian champions to win America’s first gold medal in 16 years.

“I get goosebumps just talking about it, and what it was like seeing our team getting the gold medal, watching our country’s flag being raised in honor of what we did for our country and knowing I was a part of it all?”

It was an amazing once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Or so she thought.

Now, almost 24 years later she and her gold medal team are reliving the dream as nominees and selected inductees for the 2025 Olympic and Paralympic Hall of Fame.

“We’ve all been invited to go,” Schlesselman said of her team attending the Olympic and Paralympic Hall of Fame ceremony held in Colorado Springs, Colo.

“We’ll be attending a reception on Friday and the ceremony on Saturday,” said the Hall of Fame inductee, whose team and coaches will join the ranks of other athletic trailblazers including Gabrielle Douglas and Serena Williams, forever recognized in history for their amazing accomplishments.

“I’m so excited to be able to see everyone together again,” added Schlesselman, who started her coaching career as a student studying occupational therapy at Western Michigan University.

As part of her program, she was required to do volunteer hours that enabled her to learn how to work with people who have disabilities. So, she volunteered to serve as an assistant coach for the Junior Wheelchair League in Sterling Heights.

“I loved it,” she said, of her work with the youth basketball league. “I always knew I wanted to work with kids and I also played sports so this was a good fit.”

In fact it was such a good fit her team went on to win several championships in a highly competitive league that included teams in Michigan and as far away as Alabama and California. When the commissioner of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association saw what she achieved in Sterling Heights, he asked her if she would consider furthering her involvement in the league by attending coaching clinics and completing the certification required to coach at the national or international level. This was all in addition to her work as an occupational therapist after graduating in 1998, and taking on a position at Children’s Hospital of Michigan and then the Macomb Intermediate School District.

By 2001, she was certified and the assistant coaching job for the USA Paralympic Wheelchair Team, where she remained for the four years leading up to the Athens Games in 2004.

“We were a family for four years and when we went to Athens we were together for an entire month,” she said, which is why she was so excited to be able to see her fellow coaches and team members once again.

“I lived it all as a coach but I’m most excited to see the athletes getting the recognition again for all of their hard work,” Schlesselman said, insisting Paralympic athletes follow a training regiment as vigorous as Olympians. “People need to see what these athletes can do, not what they’re unable to do.”