Role Models: NI Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Team

Photo by Jenny Rutter

This weekend marks the last game the Northern Irish Women’s Team will play as part of the British Wheelchair Basketball Women’s League this year. This weekend’s games will be played at the University of Nottingham. The Women’s team was only created earlier this year as part of the NI Women Development Group. They started with pre-pandemic sessions and playing in the British Wheelchair Basketball Women’s League was their first time away and playing together.

While the season hasn’t been full of wins it has been full of learning how to play better as a team. The group aim to continue to grow and develop, competing against other women’s teams from across Great Britain, and replicate another successful weekend. Danny Cooper, Wheelchair Performance Development Officer, stated “the group wants to be trailblazers for the sport in Northern Ireland… They have start[ed] the process of paving the way for other girls and women with physical disabilities to get involved and start playing the sport in Northern Ireland and further afield”

The Women Development Group has been working with Disability Sport Northern Ireland (DSNI), which is Northern Ireland’s main disability sports charity working to improve the health and well-being of disabled people through sport and active recreation.

Photo by Jenny Rutter

The Female Sports Forum has started a role model project in an effort to show that there is a sport/activity for everyone to get active! The Female Sports Forum was so excited to root for the team this season as they embody all the qualities that we hope role models in sports have. We cannot wait to see how this team grows and achieves in the years to come!

The Female Sports Forum wishes them good luck!