Callington sports leaders' BT Paralympic World Cup Review

For the third year running Callington Schools Sport Partnership took 8 sports leaders from across Cornwall, up to Manchester for the BT Paralympic World Cup to act as ‘Team Attachees’ in the wheelchair basketball.

Wheelchair basketball is a dynamic, high skill, team sport. Players master the hand-eye ball skills that make basketball an exciting, fast paced game to watch or play whilst also displaying speed and precision from their wheelchairs.

In 2010 eight of the best international teams battled against each other over four days of tough competition. GB battled against teams representing the Americas, Europe and the rest of the world in the Team Competition which this year is raising the stakes.

Not only were teams competing to win the Wheelchair Basketball Trophy, they were hoping to secure as many points as possible so that their team could lift the inaugural overall BT Paralympic World Cup Trophy on the final day of competition.

Facts about Wheelchair Basketball

Wheelchair Basketball is only open to wheelchair athletes.
Athletes are classified according to their physical ability and are given a points rating between 1 and 4.5; 1-pointers being the most severely disabled and 4.5 the least disabled.
Each team fields five players (and is allowed seven substitutes) however the team on court may not exceed a total of 14 points at any given time. For further information on classification please see the BBC Sport site for disability classification.
The game also cannot be drawn, and the match will continue in 5 minute periods should the score be tied at the end of playing time, allowing for the winner to be battled out.
The ‘Team Attachees’ were assigned a team to ‘manage’ for the 6 days. This role would see all 8 students interact with their teams to a very high level.

Over the 6 days the ‘Team Attachees’ were responsible for all aspects of their teams movements, ensuring that they knew when and where their training sessions were and how they were going to get there, ensure that all of the nutrition and drinks were in order, ensuring that the wheelchairs themselves were in top condition and were assigned to each player. Some of the team were asked to video each of their teams games, ready for video analysis later in the evenings.

Lucy Sage, Team attaché said:
Being part of the Paralympic World Cup is a truly inspirational experience. This was my second time at the Manchester Paralympic World Cup as a volunteer and it was great to go back after two years and see how the event had developed. My highlight of the event was getting to know the athletes on a personal level. It was inspirational to hear their stories and to watch wheelchair basketball being played at such a high level.

Nicole Worth, Team attaché said:
The Manchester Paraworld Cup was the best experience ever and was so much fun to do. Even though the days were long and fully packed with helping your team that you were assigned to; by making sure that they had water, had their stats, knew where everything was, by filming their games for them and finding out the answers to any questions they may have; as well as this I helped get the crowd in to the game by doing face painting.

Being able to go has given me a lot of experience and knowledge on how much work it takes to run such a high class event. It was an unforgettable experience and I would jump at the chance to do it again. It was such an awesome event to watch as I have never had the opportunity before to watch something like the Paraworld Cup. It was also extremely amazing to actually get to meet and work with some of the best ever wheelchair basketball player.

Thank you for the chance for such an amazing experience.

Allan Smith, Team attaché said:
I really enjoyed the time I spent in Manchester at the 2010 Paralympic World Cup where I was attached to the Canadian Wheelchair basketball team. They were a great bunch of guys who I got on with really well and have stayed in touch with both the players and coaches since the event. It was a great experience to be involved in such a big event and one I will never forget. I also learnt a lot about Paralympic sports such as wheelchair basketball and met some amazing people along the way. I feel that the group who I went up from Cornwall with was a quality group which made the trip even more enjoyable. I would have liked to have stayed longer as the only bad thing about the trip was leaving.

Ryan Bray, Team attaché said:
The Para world cup was a fantastic opportunity for me to help me progress in my sport. It will give me opportunities in the future, as I have been asked by the team I was put with to come to the world championships in Birmingham and help them there. If I proceed with that it could lead on to other things with the team and maybe a future career.

The things I had to do at the Para world cup were to help the team I was assigned to which was Italy, and help them with the teams and mangers needs throughout the time I was there, some of the stuff I had to do was to film their games, get them water, collect team stats and much more, it was a fantastic experience and I hope to go again.

Any person who gets to go to this event is a lucky person because it has to of been the highlight of my year.

The 2 people who took us there, Rob & Jane were fantastic people ad very helpful throughout the experience.

Please see the following link for pictures of the annual YST staff v’s Fasttrack staff basketball games! www.parasportimages.com/g2