I recognise and celebrate the Manly Warringah Wheelchair Basketball Association and the mighty Manly Wheel Eagles, who reached the 2023 State Waratah League grand final in their first year of competition.
This team was formed only last year, after Councillor Ruth Robins from the northern beaches met a then 10-year-old Rafferty Stevens. At the time, Rafferty and his family were driving to Dural each week for him to play wheelchair basketball. Mick Garnett and Councillor Robins, together with amazing volunteers, created a new wheelchair basketball hub at the Dee Why PCYC in Wakehurst. With the experience and passion of local Paralympians, Koen Jansens and Lisa Edmonds, the hub has quickly flourished.
I have had the pleasure of rolling with the Manly Wheel Eagles and cheering them on during the first Wheelchair Basketball Club Challenge on the northern beaches in March this year. Rafferty Stevens, now 11 years old, is the first northern beaches local to be selected in the NSW Wheelchair Basketball State Performance Program. He is seriously fast. I congratulate him.