
Josiah Knight (No. 24, in blue), a senior from Poquoson, battles for the ball in a recent wheelchair basketball tournament in Kentucky. (Photo by Ali Grossenbaugh Temple)
Who’s afraid of wheelchair basketball? Not the boys and girls from local schools who make up a team called the Sportable Spokes. If you don’t know the game, it’s intense. Play is physical and fast-paced, with players bumping, shooting and blocking. The Spokes will be the host team for a regional tournament, the Sportable Spooktacular, taking place Saturday and Sunday at Collegiate School.
The event will feature players from as far away as Ohio, and is staged by Sportable, a Richmond organization that provides adaptive sports and recreation activities for youth and adults with physical and visual disabilities.
The Spooktacular is one of the first tournaments in the National Wheelchair Basketball Association season. Four teams in the prep division (ages 5-12) and six teams from the varsity division (high schoolers) will compete in the tournament, which opens with a game tipping off at 8 a.m. Saturday.
The Sportable Spooktacular takes place Oct. 27 and 28 at the Collegiate School, 103 N. Mooreland Road, in Richmond.