Wheelchair Basket Ball
When I took over the position of Venue Manager about two and half years ago, we naturally went through the customers that were on the books. Most of the activities were the normal, every day sports activities that you’d expect to find like football, tennis, futsal(which was fairly new at the time in the UK) and then wheelchair basketball!? Huh!? That was a new one on me! I really couldn’t quite figure out how that would work. Normally basketball players are super tall and run around a lot.
I met the Spitfires team of wheelchair basketballers and their support group. Naturally the support group consists of parents, friends and so on. I was immediately impressed with how happy everyone was and how much positivity they exuded! I mean, I’m hardly ever that happy and I can walk. This made me rethink my approach in general quite a bit.
I look forward to every Sunday when the Spitfires are in, because they are just such a pleasure to deal with. The team store their wheelchairs here at the school, but at times transport them all over the country to do events in schools for anyone that’s interested in having a go really.
One of the first orders of business for the coach, was obviously to get me in a chair and teach me a few tricks related to shooting hoops from a wheelchair. I must admit, I was terrible, but am better at it now than doing it from a standing position!
The organisers of the team had recently submitted a bid for sponsorship from Sainsbury’s supermarket and won the bid. They plan to spend some of the money on buying the very expensive chairs that they need for the sport and some on paying for the sports hall where they train weekly.
If you’re interested in hiring a venue in the school, please get in touch and pop in to have a look around. I’d say 99% of people that access our facilities are very impressed.