What you're saying is gay.
I'm like what.
You get people coming up to you now saying you do any sport and when you say wheelchair
rugby they don't really believe it at first, the thing is a bit brutal.
Yeah I started playing about seven years ago, I had a bit of time off while I've been
at uni but since the ball has been off the run I'm back, yeah it's great.
It's a sport that I could really get involved in as a team because when you're at school
you're doing things like, you know, you're doing football and stuff but you cannot join
interests, like doing something as a sport and as a team that you can enjoy.
I came interested in wheelchair rugby when we had the Great Britain Wheelchair Rugby Club
down here when I was a community coach for the Lithobian. Saw it played, got the England
team to come down and play for the Lithobian and decided we'd get the chairs, we'd get
the funding for the chairs and have a go. It's a really inclusive sport and it's real
good fun and lots of action.
Chris is really friendly but he can always challenge you and he always tells you if you're
doing anything wrong and tries to improve it so in that respect he's a really good coach.
I think the Paralympic displayed to the country just what disabled people can do. They look
at you and before they were looking at you and kind of see the chair and see the disability
but you take a look at tonight and the disability of alcohol is much on the court.
Definitely encouraged me to get into the rugby side of it because I'd done wheelchair basketball
before and didn't really take to that. There wasn't enough contact and I come across the
wheelchair rugby and I love it, I would never go back.
Because some of them are much older I can learn from them and it gives me more experience
and I can improve when I'm older because I'm started so young. It's good but they can
kind of boss me around which is they like I think.
Wheelchair rugby is a fabulous sport because it allows people from all genders and all
ages to take part at the same time. There's no barrier. Here everybody can play together.
Getting on my court and smashing your mates is definitely empowering. It's good fun. It's
good because you've got to feel the pain in your slimes.
People think actually this is cool. You're not just some person in a wheelchair. It's
like kind of proving yourself as just not just a person in a wheelchair but doing sport
and being competitive. So in that respect wheelchair rugby has really helped my confidence
with being in a wheelchair as well.
The team youth force is absolutely brilliant. The first time I went to Horks I was like
oh is everyone going to like me because I'm so young but everyone is just joining together
and the whole point we're just a team and we just like playing and we just want an
objective to be in the league or do something big so the ethos is amazing.
We're going to go into national leagues this year and I'd like to see some of them go on
to the Paralympics in Rio and I'm sure they will.
