Weston Tedcastle wins junior wheelchair basketball championships with WA

A wheelchair basketballer from the Territory lit up the courts in last week’s junior wheelchair basketball championships winning the championship with WA. Read his journey.

Junior wheelchair basketballer Weston Tedcastle has proved he’s one of the best junior products in the game after winning the junior national championships with WA last week.

At the age of four Tedcastle contracted melioidosis causing acute flaccid paralysis and impacted his ability to walk.

However, seven years later he found wheelchair basketball, a sport he is now an ambassador for in the Northern Territory and encourages others to get involved.

The young gun has already been part of a NWBL championship win with the Darwin Salties and in late 2023 was invited to attend the Frank Ponta Cup in Canberra.

The experience, which he shared with Salties coach Jason Ivinson, led to calls from across the country to join separate state teams and he settled on WA, in lieu of an NT side.

Weston Tedcastle played for Western Australia in the Junior Basketball Championships.

It turned out to be the right selection as he became a key player on their path to glory, beating Victoria in the grand final.

“The experience was so good, it was great to get out around other people and play the sport,” Tedcastle said.

“It was a great journey, playing lots of games in a row, but we worked hard and got the wins we needed.”

The Darwin-born player will again link up with the Salties for the 2024 season as they look to go back-to-back.

He joins other Territory-bred talent in Clarence McCarthy-Grogan and Tom O’Neill-Thorne, who have both represented Australia at the top levels of the game.

And with the pair as his mentors young Tedcastle has set his sights on following in their tracks with hopes of playing for Australia one day himself.

“CJ and Tom are like mentors to me, they’re very inspirational, they’re always telling me the ways to go and the things to do to help me improve my game,” Tedcastle said.

“My progression has been very good, but for me getting out of Darwin and playing away against better players is key to improving my game.

“I was just playing and improving my game in Darwin when they selected me to play for the Salties last year for the Championships, and I was happy to be picked again this year.

“I’m looking forward to going again and getting to play with the team again with players like Tom and CJ being there.

“My goal is to hopefully play for Australia one day like they’ve both done.”