NI wheelchair basketball team back in play after pandemic disruption

  • Video report by James Mahon

For most of the last 21 years, the NI Knights have been one of the only wheelchair basketball teams in the country.

However, in recent years their domestic league expanded as more players got involved and they promoted their players and opportunities through social media. Then Covid-19 struck. 

Practice was cancelled, venues shut and dozens of players could no longer play including Luke Marshall who waited 16 months to get back on the court with his teammates.

"It has been difficult especially in a disability sport like wheelchair basketball where you will always have that added extra where you will have some individuals who are vulnerable so it's been very difficult."

Even while being off the court with a squad from all across Northern Ireland, the team have stuck together.

Player Thomas Martin added: "It is like having an extra family, we are literally one message away, we will do whatever it takes to look after each other."

The Knights are now back and have big goals with firefighter and coach Jason Kenney ready for summer 2021 and beyond.

He told UTV: "Well for us next year is the Commonwealth Games, there is 3 v 3 or 3 on 3 as it is called for wheelchair basketball, so this is the first time a team can represent Northern Ireland for the very first time."

People with disabilities in Northern Ireland have the lowest sports participation rates compared to all other areas of the UK and Ireland and medical professionals explain that Covid-19 restrictions being lifted leave many weighing up their options.

Dr Richard Mayne, a researcher at Queen's University explained: "It is particularly difficult in relation to facilities that are available to them as most of those facilities were closed so people want to be confident that those facilities are safe for them to perform their activities in a way that reduces their risk."

Psychologist Dr Melania Duca said it is positive that both the Knights and other wheelchair teams are back training and preparing for competition.

"There is something called an athletic identity and if you think that is really how they identity themselves with what they do, it is so important to them, if you take that from them there is a problem for the integrity of their persona," she commented.

The Knights and their coaching team are hoping that hard work between now and next summer will lead to a podium finish and history making at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games.