About Hotshot Wheelies

The Cambridge School Sports Partnership set up the Hotshot Wheelies as a Junior wheelchair basketball club through change 4 life, working closely with Chesterton Community College and Cambridge Regional College in 2010.

The sessions started well and there was a core number of 8 young people attending the sessions, but the club struggled to make any more impact, as the initial club supporting was from outside the county and couldn’t give enough support in the longer term to enable the club to be sustained. 

What changed?

It was decided to give the project a new kick start. But this time the Cambridge School Sport Partnership (SSP) teamed up with Living Sport, who and got the local Wheelchair basketball club, Hereward Heat, on board.

With their head coach willing and able to give the time coach the sessions initially, with a plan to get volunteers trained up to support and eventually go on to coach with the club. 

A Sportivate bid was successfully applied for by the SSP to give the club 6 sessions of coaching and venue hire, as well as additional equipment purchase for the following purposes:

• To get more young people involved in wheelchair basketball, both able bodied and disabled.
• To run a wheelchair Basketball Leaders’ Course and to get volunteers involved and support a number of them to go on to do their Level 1 coaching qualification.
• To become the junior feeder club for Hereward Heat, to support them to have more sustainable numbers in the long term.

The difference

The benefits are that more young people can engage in a disability sport and start out on a pathway that will allow them to participate regularly in the sport.

The club will develop and provide competitive opportunities for the young people, who would otherwise not be able to engage in the sport.

More young people with physical disabilities can get more physically active in a fun way and be part of a team.

The junior sections partnership with Hereward Heat will also strengthen their numbers and promote the club name and the sport to a wider audience and help to sustain the club in the long term.

The future

The successful partnership work of the SSP, CSP and local club, as well as support from the NGB, has meant that different funding pots were sourced to get the project off the ground and to make the club sustainable. Each party understood their role in the project, worked hard to support each other and thus ensured that the end goal in achieved.

The county will have a junior wheelchair basketball club that young people can join to and develop their skills at an appropriate level, with the opportunity to stay in the sport and further their skills as they get older with Hereward Heat.

The project is also holding wheelchair basketball leader course and will run a Level 1 coaching qualification in the county in the next 6 months. This will help to ensure that the junior sessions are sustainable with volunteers also promoting wheelchair basketball to a wider audience in the county.

Once the 6 weeks Sportivate sessions are concluded (at the end of the Autumn term) the SSP, CSP and the Hereward Heat will ensure Hotshot wheelies can continue by giving Hereward Heat ownership of it, and supporting them to ensure that the junior section is sustainable on its own by keeping numbers up and applying for suitable funding.