Philip "Phil" Evans is a 2.5 point wheelchair basketball player from Australia. He has been selected to represent Australia at the 2024 Paris Paralympics.[1]
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nationality |  Australia |
| Sport | |
| Disability class | 2.5 |
| Club | Perth Wheelcats |
Biography
editEvans hometown is Perth, Western Australia. In September 2013, after having celebrating a premiership football win with friends, crashed his car on the way home.[2] The car accident him fracturing his T-11 and T-12 vertebrae, paralysing him from the waist down.[2] He attended University of Arizona where he majored in business.[3]
Basketball
editEvans played many sports growing up including Australia rules football, indoor and outdoor cricket, mixed netball, rugby union, tennis and golf. After his accident, he coached a senior Whitford's AFL side, where he played A Grade Football in 2009-2010 and 2012–2013.[4]
He was introduced to wheelchair basketball through attending ‘come and try’ day at the Herb Graham Recreation Centre organised by Rebound WA.[2] He was selected to play for the Perth Wheelcats in Australia's National Wheelchair Basketball League and this led him to be offered a University of Arizona scholarship to join their wheelchair basketball program.[2]
He was a member of the Rollers team at the 2024 IWBF Asia-Oceania Championships in Thailand, where they won the gold medal and qualified for 2024 Summer Paralympics.[5]
References
edit- ^ "Fire Burns For Veteran Rollers Picked For Paris 2024 | Paralympics Australia". www.paralympic.org.au. 5 July 2024. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
- ^ a b c d "Perth paraplegic's hoop dreams come true". The West Australian. 17 September 2018. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
- ^ "Phil Evans | Adaptive Athletics". adaptiveathletics.arizona.edu. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
- ^ "Facebook". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
- ^ "Rollers Team Announced for Asia Oceania Championships". www.australia.basketball. 15 December 2023. Retrieved 7 July 2024.