Irish Wheelchair Association Launches Ireland’s First National Wheelchair Basketball Championships
Irish Wheelchair Association (IWA) Tipperary has recently launched the first ‘All-Ireland TY Wheelchair Basketball Championships’ which will take place throughout 2017/18.
The All-Ireland TY Wheelchair Basketball Championships allows TY students across Ireland to engage in a disability awareness progamme and also experience a Paralympic sport, immersing TY students in a fast paced, edge of your seat game, providing an authentic first hand inclusive experience of this incredible game and wheelchair sports.
IWA is Ireland’s leading representative organisation and service providers for people with physical disabilities. IWA has two busy Community Centres located in Roscrea and Tipperary Town. The Centres provide a range of essential services to local people with disabilities. Each year IWA Tipperary liaises with local schools and TY students from Tipperary for its national fundraising campaign ‘Angels’. Students volunteer during November, to support their local IWA Centre to sell a range of Angels products in order to raise essential funds for IWA services, supports and activities including wheelchair and para-sports.
Speaking about the first ever ‘All-Ireland Wheelchair Basketball Championships’, Charlene Hurley, IWA National Fundraising Manager explained: “The All-Ireland TY Wheelchair Basketball Championships invites Transition Year students to have the opportunity to take part in wheelchair basketball as a team and compete in a national event against their neighbouring schools. The programme will include four regional finals held in January and February 2018, in Galway, Meath, Cork and Waterford. The top teams will then get to take part in the All-Ireland TY Wheelchair Basketball Championships Finals to be held in the National Basketball Arena, Tallaght on Tuesday March 13th, 2018”.
She continued: “Alongside this, schools will also be supporting IWA’s Angels Campaign by participating in fundraising events and activities. All funds raised by local schools will be invested in IWA services and supports in the schools local community.”
All participating schools will be asked to fundraise €1000, by taking part in IWA’s Angels Campaign during the month of November and also through in-house school fundraising raised during the period, September – December 2017. IWA Community Fundraisers will be available to assist local schools to organise fundraising activities such as Angels Coffee Mornings or Angels Fun Runs. IWA-Sport will provide all sport equipment, including sport wheelchairs and will referee regional finals.
Joining IWA to launch the inaugural ‘All-Ireland Wheelchair Basketball Championships’ was Jerome Westbrooks, American Basketball Player and one of the most iconic figures in Irish basketball. Now a basketball coach and PE Teacher he encouraged TY Coordinators to register their students for this exciting championships:
“Basketball is an incredible team sport and one of the most popular sports played in Irish Secondary Schools nationwide. It is important for everyone to have the opportunity to enjoy and participate in sport. The All-Ireland Wheelchair Basketball Championships provides students and their teachers with a unique opportunity to learn more about wheelchair sports and to participate in a disability awareness programme also. Most importantly the Championships promises to be great fun and something each student can take away as a fantastic programme they participated in as part of the TY Programme’
For further information about the ‘All-Ireland TY Wheelchair Basketball Championships’ or to register your school please visit www.iwa.ie/basketball or contact Charlene Hurley, IWA National Fundraising Manager on 087 2600802 or email charlene.hurley@iwa.ie. Schools must be registered by Friday, 27th October.