Thursday, 23rd February, 2012

The 2012 National Wheelchair Basketball League gets underway this weekend with an exciting new concept. For the first time since the league's inception in 1988, all teams will travel to the same venue for a huge cluster round. It will be a great celebration of wheelchair basketball with the added bonus of giving every team a look at all the opposition.

Following the sad demise of the West Sydney Razorbacks, 6 teams will compete this year - 2011 Champions Wollongong Roller Hawks, Adelaide Thunder, Be Active Perth Wheelcats, RSL Queensland Spinning Bullets, Sydney Uni WheelKings and Victoria Dandenong Rangers.

From the Sydney Uni WheelKings perspective, this was looking to be a great season with the recruitment of Troy Sachs who had been in retirement since 2009. Also, there were some great pickups from the Razorbacks in Australian Gliders representatives Sarah Stewart and Katie Hill, and Jason Voncino and Rhys Baxter.

However, the WheelKings were shocked last month when promising 2.0 point junior Tim Markcrow accepted an offer to play with the Wollongong Roller Hawks. Then came another blow with the team's perennial leading scorer and rebounder Koen Jansens announcing just 2 weeks ago that he would be unavailable for this season. There is hope that he will still be able to come back and play enough games to qualify for the finals but that is yet to be determined.

Both players will be sorely missed but Coach Hewson will again rely on his core of Kylie Gauci, Craig Cannane, CJ Grogan, Keegan Oh-Chee and Josh Meoli to make up the slack. As well as the new team members, ample support will be provided by Tina McKenzie, Yara Ryan, Brad Grove, Caitlin de Wit and Stephanie Van Leeuwen.

Coach Hewson has stated that the team's first goal is to make the finals and then compete for the 'chip. It is entirely possible that the WheelKings could make a big statement this season as last year's other finalists - Perth, Wollongong and Brisbane - have all made adjustments to their line-ups.

With the continued generous support of Wenty Leagues and Sydney University, the WheelKings feel that they're in great shape as a club. Success on the court will be the reward.

The WheelKings first home game will be at 7pm Saturday 24th March against the Be Active Perth Wheelcats so  get to the Sydney University Sports and Aquatic Centre and be a part of the action!