麻豆社区

For the first couple of days at last week's selection camp in Toronto, Aiden Love wasn't feeling optimistic about his chances of making the junior men's national wheelchair basketball team.

Love says the style of play for the national team was quite different than what he was used to playing with the Victoria Chargers this past season.

It was a period of quick adjustment, says the 20-year-old Whitehorse man who learned Saturday at the end of camp that he'd made the roster of 12 from 19 invited to try out.

"It was like a big transition, a huge learning curve,鈥� he says. "The first few days were really difficult.

"I pretty much had to learn a new sport.鈥�

Love lost the use of his legs last year in a skiing accident at Whistler, B.C.

Sixteen months later he's heading back to Toronto on July 22 for an intensive three weeks of training in preparation for September's U23 World Championships in Turkey.

His goal now, of course, is to someday move up to the senior men's team which won gold at London's Paralympics last summer.

Love says it will be a long road of training and dedication.

But then again, early last week as one of three rookies invited to try out for the under-23 national team, he wasn't expecting to be in the running for a spot in the line-up.

Not until the end of the third day when national coach Steve Bialowas assured him he had a shot at it did Love fully embrace the notion he could be on the plane to Turkey dressed in a maple leaf.

"I just think they saw a huge transition from when I arrived to the last game we were playing,鈥� he says of his selection. "I could keep up, and I had absorbed as much knowledge as I could.鈥�

Love says his role on the court last week was specific, well defined, and it wasn't scoring baskets.

Rather, he says, his job was to feed the designated shooters and clear a lane.

In wheelchair basketball, athletes are assigned a number from one to 4.5 according to the extent of their disability, with one being the most disabled and 4.5 the least.

Teams can not have anymore than 14 points on the floor at once.

As a one, Love says, his assignment is to get the ball to the shooters, who are usually 4.5s down to threes, and are generally taller with higher wheel chairs.

Everything happens quickly, and decisions are made on the fly, requiring constant and precise communication, he says.

"You definitely have a specific role on the court.鈥� says Love. "And it's your job to carry out that role, or else you're a man short and the opponent will score points.鈥�

Love believes it was the pace of his rebound since his accident that helped get him noticed by the national coach in the first place.

He'd met Bialowas a few times in B.C. over the last year, and the coach invited him to a identification camp at the end of May, from which he was invited to Toronto last week.

"I think he kind of saw how far I came in just under a year, and he saw potential,鈥� says Love, a former member of the Whitehorse Mustangs hockey team who also represented the Yukon in volleyball at the 2009 Canada Summer Games.

While waiting to leave for Toronto, he'll continue his training regime in the weight room and on the court with his brothers and friends.

Love also hand-cycles regularly through the week. He cycled the longest leg in the June 14 Kluane Chilkat Bike Relay, the 40-kilometre Leg #2.

By Chuck Tobin

Star Reporter