The Australian Under-23 Spinners have been named ahead of the Kitakyushu Champions Cup for wheelchair basketball which will be held in Japan from November 18-20.
A four-nation tournament, Australia has a strong history at the Cup with three titles to their name including a victory in 2013 and will face the USA, Great Britain and Japan this year.
The Spinners will be aiming to stake a claim for the upcoming Under-23 IWBF World Championship team with that tournament to be held in Toronto next June.
A young and developing team, they will be led by head coach Luke Brennan who was the assistant coach in Rio with the Rollers, while on court, the most experienced member of the side will be captain Tom O’Neill-Thorne who recently competed for the Australian Rollers at the Rio Paralympics.
“The majority of the squad have been exposed to Rollers senior program camps in small ways and O’Neill-Thorne will lead them on-court as the key ball handler and creator,” said National Wheelchair Program Manager, Leigh Gooding.
Bailey Rowland (Queensland) & Dylan Child (Queensland) will assist O’Neill-Thorne with the ball handling duties while the scoring burden will be spread amongst the likes of Brian Carminati (Victoria), Steven Elliott (Queensland) and Anderson Parker (New South Wales).
“The low-point brigade including Jeremy Tyndall (Victoria), Nick Scott (New South Wales) and Harry Lynch (Victoria) will be looking to help facilitate the scoring while forging out key roles to help propel their international careers,” said Gooding.
“Tom Holland (Queensland), Jake Fulwood (Queensland) and big man Thomas McHugh (WA), who is the youngest member of the team at just 15 years of age, round out the Spinners.
“Each of these players will be required to step-up across the different areas of their game to provide a balanced contribution for this first tournament with the Spinners.
The team may be a little undermanned against some of the more experienced teams at the Kitakyushu Cup but we will be sure to put up a good fight and will take some learnings from the international event that has been a staple on the calendar for our Australian men’s teams.”
The preliminary round of competition will start on Friday, November 18 when Australia face Great Britain at 3pm AEDT.
The Spinners will then play the USA at 3pm AEDT the following day before facing Japan at 11am AEDT on the morning of Sunday, November 20 with the bronze and gold medal games to be played at 2pm and 4pm respectively that afternoon.
The 2016 Australian Under-23 Spinners for the Kitakyushu Champions’ Cup:
| PLAYER | AGE | CLASSIFICATION |
| Brian Carminati | 20 | 4.0 |
| Dylan Child | 18 | 1.5 |
| Steven Elliott | 21 | 4.0 |
| Jake Fulwood | 21 | 4.0 |
| Tom Holland | 21 | 3.0 |
| Thomas McHugh | 15 | 4.5 |
| Tom O’Neill-Thorne | 19 | 3.0 |
| Anderson Parker | 18 | 4.5 |
| Bailey Rowland | 20 | 2.0 |
| Nick Scott | 20 | 1.0 |
| Jeremy Tyndall | 20 | 1.5 |
| Coach: Luke Brennan | ||
| Asst. Coach: Craig Campbell | ||
| Physiotherapist: Ryan Campbell | ||
| Manager/Assistant: Brett Jones |
Media contact:
Leigh Gooding
National Wheelchair Program Manager
0423 403 326
leigh.gooding@basketball.net.au
In the spirit of reconciliation Basketball Australia acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.