Fort Belvoir, Va. (Oct. 16, 2014) - Fort Belvoir military personnel and their Families got a unique opportunity to meet professional National Basketball Association players when the Washington Wizards conducted an exhibition practice session to support the Salute to our Troops program, Monday at Wells Field House.

The event, sponsored by the Wizards organization and Fort Belvoir's Directorate of Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation, also featured giveaways, on-court contests, autograph sessions and a live NBA-TV television broadcast hosted by David Aldridge and Dennis Scott.

Amid the lights and cameras of every major news network in the Washington, D.C. metro area, more than 100 Service members and Family members from across the installation watched directly from the sidelines as the 2014 Wizards team ran through a series of high-speed warm-up drills before spending the next two hours developing plays and defensive strategies.

According to Richard Tatem, DFMWR sports and fitness coordinator, the Wizards' decision to host the event at Belvoir created quite a bit of excitement on post.

"The Wizards always do a lot of programs for the military, and when they decided to come out here today and have their practice, it was pretty exciting," he said.

Tatem added that the event also provided DFMWR an opportunity to give community members a glimpse of the newly redesigned and renovated Wells Field House sports facility on North Post.

"This was also a great way to show how the building is coming along," he said. "It's not officially open yet but this gives everyone a chance to see how all the upgrades have really made this a beautiful place. We originally planned to have the Wizards event at Graves (Fitness Center), but with all the camera equipment that would be used, we decided Graves would be a little too small and Wells would be perfect."

Like all special events hosted at Fort Belvoir, the Wizards practice session and meet and greet resulted from a lot of hard work from numerous DFMWR personnel.

"Everybody worked really hard to get this put together," said Deborah Peterson, Kawamura Human Performance Center sports and fitness specialist. "Actually, we only found out about this event the day before Oktoberfest. But everyone worked really hard to get ready for it."

Peterson also said that the success of the Wizards' visit makes future events likely.

"People are really enjoying this and (DFMWR officials) are talking about making this an annual event with the Washington Wizards," she said.

U.S. Army Garrison Fort Belvoir Commander Col. Michelle Mitchell and USAG Fort Belvoir Command Sgt. Maj. Scott Guillory attended, with Mitchell providing opening remarks.

"I would like to say thank you to the Wizards for acknowledging and also recognizing the contributions of our military members and our Family members," she said. "I would also like to recognize our Fort Belvoir varsity (Washington Area Military Athletics Conference) basketball team.

Our DFMWR team also worked very hard to bring this event to Fort Belvoir; over the last few weeks they put together the Oktoberfest and we also had the Washington Redskins here."

The Wizards ran through a full practice session running nearly two hours, with the full roster suited up and participating, including Head Coach Randy Wittman and his entire staff of assistant coaches, trainers and player developers.

Following the formal practice, the Washington Wizards cheerleaders performed several dynamic routines before mingling with the crowd and handing out T-shirts and NBA souvenirs.

A highlight of the afternoon came when members of the Fort Belvoir Eagles WAMAC men's team took to the court to face off against the Wizards in several shooting contests to determine who could sink the most mid-range shots inside of one minute.

The event concluded with the Wizards players signing autographs and spending a little time with fans of all ages.

For more information regarding special DFMWR events, visit www.bel voirmwr.com.