West Rise Basketball

West Rise Basketball is a competition for people with disabilities and their siblings. The competition empowers their participants. It is played with other grades of competitions at Ray Owen Stadium in Lesmurdie and it makes our players feel part of society and encourages society to accept them. West Rise is not fully about basketball, but about learning new skills, like umpiring, scoring, helping players and coaching, plus our players meet new people from different areas and also improve fitness and general basketball skills. We have two divisions in West Rise. Division 2 is more social and players are helped and encouraged by umpires. It is more about fairness and everyone has a ‘go’ at shooting, passing, defense and they learn to be patient and to be part of a team. Division 1 is for the more serious player. They are taught team work and are a bit more structured with basketball. They are encouraged to use their skills but also to use teamwork. The players in this division coach, umpire and score for Division 2. Bendigo is our team in Youth Men and consists entirely of West Rise players who have represented WA or have trained with the WA team. They are dedicated players and keen to improve and work hard. This team plays in mainstream competition and the players are encouraged to work at skills to improve their experience, making it more possible to represent WA and play in the Nationals in the future. We also have a team in C men where our players play with 2 mainstream coaches. We have 2 mainstream coaches/players and 6 West Rise players. This gives our players an opportunity to learn different skills and be part of a team, and play against mainstream teams. West Rise Basketball has dedicated coaches who have a passion for basketball and for being fair in life. They enjoy coaching and helping our players become better people and learn a skill that will help them be part of society. Our coaches are part of the state Ivor Burge team that represented WA at the Australian National Competition in Tasmania in February. They were praised by other states for the way the team had improved and how they challenged other states. Most of that team play for Bendigo. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptFiHTylX6g