By CHAT News Today

Adaptive Sport and Recreation hosting wheelchair basketball tournament on Saturday

Mar 6, 2018 | 3:48 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — Medicine Hat Adaptive Sport and Recreation are giving the community an opportunity to try wheelchair basketball for the first time.

The group is hosting its first ever March Madness Wheelchair Basketball tournament in partnership with the Sunshine Rotary Club on Saturday from noon – 6 p.m. at the Family Leisure Centre.

All money raised from the tournament will help the organization with its new wheelchair basketball program.

“This is our inaugural year of wheelchair basketball in Medicine Hat,” said Tara Chisholm with the organization. “There used to be a team in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, but then our chairs got really old, and they were starting to fall apart.

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“We were able to get a grant for new chairs, but we still need funding with regards transporting, storing those chairs, and going outside of Medicine Hat.”

Chisholm says the wheelchair basketball team continues to grow weeks after its launch.

“It’s really awesome to watch people, who may not have been involved in a sport – especially a team sport – who for the first time in their lives are part of a team sport,” she said.

Les Scholly, president of the Sunrise Rotary Club, says it was important for the club to get involved with the basketball team. Members of the club will be on hand to help run the tournament,

“As Rotarians, not only do we like to support financially, but also with action too,” he said.

There is one spot available for a team of four to eight people of all abilities. The entry fee for the tournament is $500 per team. A local wheelchair basketball player will be a captain on each team and will help new players learn the rules of the game.

More information about the tournament can be found on their Facebook page.