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Rockwheelers

NARRATOR: Rockhampton, in Central Queensland - home to the Fitzroy River, over 60,000 Queenslanders and the Rockwheelers.

MAN: The wheelchair basketball program began in the late '90s in the area with a few guys from Emerald and Rockhampton wanting to explore the sport.

Everyone's got behind it.

They are a wonderful team, with great supporters and volunteers.

An integral but relatively new member of the team is Paul Gooda

PAUL: It was just a chance meeting in 2010 where I met the captain of the Rockwheelers, Jason Holohan, and the coordinator for Sporting Wheelies, Michael Oxley.

I introduced myself to him and he said he'd had my name and number in his phone for two years and he hadn't been game to ring me and to take that step.

We're gonna start over this side.

(WHISTLE BLOWS)

And he just had a particular style of pushing his chair that sorta...

..looked to me like he had control of it, so I wanted to see a bit more.

PAUL: And that's when they convinced me to...

..to come and try wheelchair basketball the next Wednesday, and I've never stopped since.

Paul hasn't always been a team player.

Until 2010, he'd never participated in any group sports.

It simply wasn't on my radar.

At 19, Paul's life changed forever.

It was a Friday night.

It was a '50s night at one of the local clubs, and we all were excited about it.

We went out, there was much alcohol involved.

We all decided to go to the beach.

We got into the car with a drunk driver.

And then... I passed out.

Next thing I remember is just, like, flashes of light, which I assume was from the ambulance.

And then I remember waking up

in the Princess Alexandra Spinal Unit two weeks later, paraplegic.

And that's...that was it.

It was a sad time.

I was a sad person.

I was very, very insecure, very shy,

low self-confidence, no self-confidence.

I wanted to shut out the world.

I just wanted to retreat into my books.

This is Paul's first game.

It was during that first game that I decided that this was the sport for me, that I was definitely gonna play this sport until I'm physically not able to anymore.

It's not disability that unites players on the court, it's ability.

Daniel is able-bodied but is no different to any other Rockwheeler.

It's a lot more fun than the able-body basketball.

You get more moves out of it.

You can build up a lot more strength than able-bodied.

And you just have a lot of fun doing it.

MAN: Oh, Paulie!

Yeah, it seems to rub off on anybody that gets involved.

Everyone sort of just... It's like a whole new world, so...

Yeah. Both able-body and disabled people.

It just opens up their eyes, opened up new avenues.

Yeah, it's just unlike any other feeling I've ever had in my life.