Wheelchair Basketball
Wheelchairs tipped, tyres clashed and bodies hit the court as the teams went after the basketball at full force. Disability is left by the sideline. Agility and coordination reveal the skill of these players as they demonstrate the inner workings of the game. The international audience witnessed the best of wheelchair basketball at Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise.
It was during the First Meeting of States Parties to the Cluster Munitions Convention and the audience was made up of cluster bomb survivors, supporters, campaigners, COPE staff, government delegates and media. Everyone was invited to experience the sport and the Prince Mired Raad Al Hussein from Jordan and the Ban Advocates (campaigning survivors) were among those who took up the challenge.
COPE project coordinator Kerryn Clarke says the centre has regular basketball games.
“Sport puts people on an equal platform, you don’t see the wheelchair or missing limbs, all you see is talent – you walk away seeing ability not disability.”
Two Australian players, Liesl Tesch and Brad Ness, were there to show their support to the many unexploded weapon survivors.
Liesl was 19 when she fell off her bike and broke her back. After intensive physiotherapy and rehabilitation she is inspiring others with her strength and optimism. Brad is similarly high-spirited and forward-focused.
“I’ve always played sport, I used to swim and play footy and after the accident I never once thought I couldn’t continue doing what I love,” he said. “If anyone told me I couldn’t I just became more determined.”
Brad was working as a deckhand on a high-speed ferry between Rottnest Island and Fremantle. Late one night when he was checking all the ropes before launching, the Captain thought he heard the ‘all-clear’. As the ferry moved out the rope tightened around Brad’s ankle and ripped it clean off.
“When I was in hospital I counseled a few children who had lost limbs but I’ve never received any myself. I just wanted to get on with it, move forward and not let it beat me.”
“I look around here and see the injuries some have sustained and consider myself lucky.”
COPE offers free prosthetics, orthotics and rehabilitation to survivors and a space on the court where replacement limbs are forgotten. Where the playing field is leveled and all that matters is fitness, fun and basketball.
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