Basketball Club Campaigns to Raise Numbers

A wheelchair basketball club is campaigning to raise awareness of sporting opportunities for people with disabilities. The Sheffield Steelers, one of the biggest wheelchair basketball clubs in the world, is encouraging more people to get involved in wheelchair accessible sports.

Currently there are over 11 million disabled people in the UK, yet less than two in every ten people in England are taking part in sport. The Steelers are determined to raise that figure and are working with schools in their local area to spread the word.

Securing Funding

The club was formed in 1987 by a group of ex-patients from the spinal injuries unit at Lodge Moor Hospital. Now, nearly 30 years on, the wheelchair sporting club has players of all abilities ranging from amateur to world-class.

The Steelers train and play league games at Northern General Hospital in the spinal injuries unit sports hall. They have number of teams from junior right up to their premier team. However despite the club’s success they say that securing funding and getting people interested in their sport can often prove difficult.

Club chairman, Maurice Hammerton, said: “Because we’re so tucked away at Northern General, people don’t realise that we’re here and that they can come by to play or to watch a game.

“At the moment we’re working with local schools to get students playing inclusive zone basketball, which allows able bodied and disabled kids to play at the same time. It’s an innovative idea that has been developed by Wheelchair Basketball.“

“It’s great for us in some ways because we get free training and we have access to patients who could join the team but it does mean that wheelchair basketball is fairly hidden here. We can’t even build up a crowd for our games because nobody wants to give up their free time to go up to a hospital.

“We’re trying to get some funding to help us get out and about more so we can spread awareness of the club and encourage more people to play and come and watch too but unfortunately funding can be difficult to come by.”

Getting the Message Out

Maurice has been playing wheelchair basketball for over 20 years and has been instrumental in getting the message about wheelchair accessible sport out. The club is now working with local youngsters to encourage them to get into sport.

Maurice added: “At the moment we are working with local schools to get students playing inclusive zone basketball, which allows able bodied and disabled kids to play at the same time. It is an innovative idea that has been developed by Wheelchair Basketball.

“We hope that the students who we work with in this way will be encouraged to join our club or to try other wheelchair sports.”

Ruth Willis, chief executive of South Yorkshire Community Foundation, added: “Sheffield Steelers are one of those groups that when you hear about their work you can’t help but smile. We’ve been able to help fund some of their outreach work which enables them to properly coach and boost the confidence of people just getting started so they feel able to pursue playing.”

For more info on how you can get involved visit http://www.sheffield-steelers.co.uk/.