Cockatoos take silver in Shellharbour

Nine months after their first training session, the Lane Cove Cockatoos returned from the NSW Wheelchair Basketball Club Championships with silver medals.

Playing in Division 2 at Illawarra Sports Stadium, the Cockatoos won four of their five pool games before beating the Orange City Rollers 39-27 in the semi-final. In the grand final, they came up just short when faced with the undefeated Illawarra Eagles.

“Illawarra’s home-town advantage saw the stands packed with loud and passionate supporters,” said Cockatoo’s Club Founder and six-time Paralympian Gerry Hewson, “it was a tooth-and-nail defensive scrap, with the previously undefeated Eagles throughout the game. However, Lane Cove couldn’t find the shots we needed late in the fourth quarter and ultimately went down by just five points, 40-35.”

Illawarra also beat Lane Cove at the club challenge in March, igniting the flame that the young club believes will develop into a strong rivalry with the Eagles for years to come.

“They’re our bogey team. We’re like the Australian Opals, who win silver every Olympics because they can’t get past the USA. But there’s always next year. We’re going to have a fair crack at these guys,” club secretary Michael King said.

The club sent one mixed team of seven, with three Cockatoos making the all-star teams: Louis Richards and Oscar Doman in the Men’s All-Star 5, and captain Tani Vollmer in the Women’s All-Star 5. Vollmer also won gold in the 3-on-3 and silver in Women’s Division One, playing 16 games in three days.

“The other young players were just awesome,” King said. “They played their hearts out across five games and got us to where we were.”

A Tournament Of Their Own

Back home, the Cockatoos are running their own invitational tournament at Galuwa Recreation Centre on River Road. It has five teams and 42 players: a Cockatoos women’s side, a Cockatoos men’s side, Central Coast, Manly, and the Sydney Uni Lions from the women’s National League.

The round-robin began on 20 October, and the top four teams go through to finals night on 1 December. The club recruited the teams, found the referees and is providing the awards.

It plans to make the tournament an annual event with a perpetual trophy.

Open To Everyone

The Cockatoos now have 50 registered players, and about 60 per cent of them are able-bodied. There aren’t enough local wheelchair users to fill a competition on their own, so the club keeps 20 sports wheelchairs for anyone to borrow.

For newcomers, it’s noted that getting the hang of pushing the chair comes fairly quickly, but it’s doing it while handling a ball where it becomes tricky. “Watching even top-level NBL players try to manipulate the chair, and the ball is definitely worth seeing,” King said of the club’s promotional days with the Sydney Kings. “It brings them back to a level of humility.”

The club especially wants to reach young people with disabilities and is working with Lane Cove Council to find them. It already has five players aged five and six.

King said the earlier you get into the sport, the easier it is to learn the techniques.

“It’s not really about making the Australian team. It’s about having the community, having the opportunity to do something brilliant.”

“It’s fun once you get it. It’s great fun gliding around in a wheelchair or on a smooth basketball court. It’s just this feeling of freedom.”

The Cockatoos train on Tuesdays at Galuwa: juniors from 4.45pm to 5.30pm and everyone else from 5.30pm to 7.30pm. More information is at lanecovecockatoos.au.