'Life is great'

Jaime Baltazar was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Eight years ago, the 6-foot-3-inch jock was driving through his rough Back-of-the-Yards neighborhood when a gang-banger's bullet changed his world forever.

The shooter was never found. Baltazar was left a paraplegic, his days of varsity basketball and cross-country ended.

Baltazar, now 25, isn't bitter. In fact, he says, "Life is great."

A sophomore student-athlete at the University of Illinois, he plays varsity wheelchair basketball on a team that won this year's national championship.

And, on Thursday, he flew to Colorado Springs, Colo., to try to live out a dream: He's there to try out for the …