Kicking goals while shooting hoops

Wheelchair basketball champion has sights set on 2020 Paralympics

Mackay basketballer Brayden Foxley-Conolly has been named the Sporting Wheelies and Disabled Association Junior Male Athlete of the Year. Picture: Emma Murray

NO CHALLENGE is too big for wheelchair basketballer Brayden Foxley-Conolly.

The 14-year-old star of the court was awarded the 2018 Junior Male Athlete of the Year on Sunday, and accepted the honour at the Sporting Wheelies and Disabled Association Annual Award ceremony in Brisbane.

Mackay Machines coach Peter Sumpter said Brayden was "the most coachable lad”.

"I've trained Brayden from the beginning and if I give him a hard task, he will always go away and work on it until he gets it,” Sumpter said.

"Now he's as quick as anybody in the state.”

Brayden had "a toolbox full of skills” on the court, Sumpter said. "He's got incredible reflexes, cooperative play with the rest of the team and vision of what's around him.

"I think he could go a long way with this sport, this is just the beginning.”

Brayden lost some of his limbs after contracting meningococcal disease as a baby, but he has never let his disability get the better of him.

After taking up the sport four years ago, basketball is now his biggest passion and he never misses training.

"I put in the work and I love coming to practice because of the social side of the game,” Brayden said. "I would like to make it to the 2020 Paralympics and then the U23 wheelchair basketball World Championships in 2021.”

Brayden trains three times a week and every day during school holidays.

Pursuing basketball as a career is one of his goals.

"I have a lot of fun playing basketball, I can't see myself ever stopping,” he said.

You can catch Brayden in action when he plays for the Mackay Machines on March 30 and 31.

Originally published as Kicking goals while shooting hoops