How Trooper could get his team firing!

By Ezimtoti Reporter

Wheelchair Basketball South Africa (WBSA) coach Trooper Johnson can focus his under-23 World Championship qualifiers preparations around two key points, which should equip the team to produce a solid performance, ending this Friday with a tie against Kuwait.

The team needs a leader up front, one that will trouble opposition defenders by running into spaces and free up fellow attackers to exploit weaknesses in the opposition defence.

Players have to know when to make a move, and to master all this, needs a special talent. Not unlike in football, where you have to make a run and control the ball, players in wheelchair basketball have to focus on where to go, reading defenders, and running into spaces. He said players who were not born with this kind of disability and who before used to play football understand the concept very well. They understand space better on the field than those who were born disabled. But those who were born disabled are far better at controlling their wheelchairs, though they are not so good at making spaces up front. He has to practice these two techniques as they will help him win their matches in Cairo next year. The boys will be in Egypt on 20-30 January next year to compete against eight other African wheelchair teams, which include the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Algeria, and Libya.

Countries that do well in Egypt are going to the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation showpiece to take place later next year.

The Sasol U23 Men’s Wheelchair Basketball team, also known as the Sasol AmawheelaBoys, know Mzansi will rally behind them, as they also did with the Banyana Banyana and Bafana Bafana recently.

“As the nation rallies behind this team, our effort further fuels their dreams and helps them reach what may be considered the impossible,” said Sasol manager for sponsorship and brand, Dean Somerset.

Trooper said the boys know it’s not going to be easy to win all their games, as all teams in the tournament want to win as well, to make their countries proud.