By Staff
Photography by Oliver Hannak
April 4, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
Things didn’t get off to a great start for the Burlington Vipers – the team Brandon Wagner, Burlington’s Paralympian, plays on – but he will be back at it on Saturday taking part in the three day National Championship tournament at the Haber Recreational Centre. The Burlington Vipers lost their first two games
The 2014 Canadian Wheelchair Basketball League (CWBL) National Championship takes place April 4-6, 2014 in Burlington and are sanctioned by Wheelchair Basketball Canada.
The event is being hosted by the Burlington Vipers in conjunction with the City of Burlington. These Championships are the first national event to take place at the Centre which was built for just this kind of thing.
The place has eight courts where teams can play at the same time. The building, brand new, is squeaky clean with large plasma screen throughout the building.
Wheelchair basketball players do not have to be disabled – something I didn’t know. When any player falls over in their chair – and with the way these men and women go at it – there are a lot of tumbles, they have to get up by themselves. Men and women do play on the same team.
Every player is ranked, which is a number assigned to a player based on their level of physical functionality. It is basically a measure of their body trunk capability. The players are ranked by professionals who have experience with disabled people.
There are five players on the court at any one time – and the total value of the players cannot be more than 15 points. So a team that has some high ranking – a player is ranked between 1-5 and can be a 3.5 for example.
If there are two players who have exceptional body trunk capability and they have ranks of 4.5 – nine of the 15 points available to the coach are taken up.
Off to a corner of the court two people sit at a table keeping a count of the points on the floor. They know the ranking of each player and are adding up their rank values every time a new player rolls onto the court.
A players ranking can charge but that doesn’t happen very often.
The tournament runs Saturday and Sunday. The schedule can be reached by clicking on the link.
Brandon Wagner is back on the court Saturday afternoon.
Background links:
Haber Recreational Centre deal put in place.
