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Wheelcats vice-captain thankful to wheelchair basketball

Phil Evans has had a lot of memorable experiences through wheelchair basketball, but ultimately he credits the sport for giving him a new life post-accident as he prepares for another NWBL season with the Perth Wheelcats.

The last thing Evans ever thought about being was a wheelchair basketballer in the first 23 years of his life, but it’s that same sport that he now credits for finding himself and a new identity since his accident.

And there has been a whole host of experiences that he’ll never forget that it’s led to including attending the University of Arizona, representing the Australian Rollers at the Paris Paralympic Games, and now continuing to play for his hometown Wheelcats in the NWBL.

Evans has been named vice-captain for the Wheelcats team of 2025 as they prepare to build on the bronze medal finish they had in 2024 in the first season with Ben Ettridge back as coach, and now they prepare for a first season without having all-time great Shaun Norris out there playing.

Thanking wheelchair basketball

When Evans was involved in a car accident in September 2013, he had no idea what the rest of his life was going to look like given how active on his feet he had been prior to that including playing Aussie Rules football.

However, fast forward now to 2025 and it’s wheelchair basketball that Evans will forever be thankful for. It’s not just because of the opportunities it’s provided like going to college in the United States, going to the Paralympics, playing for Wheelcats or whatever it might be.

Above all of those memorable experiences, it’s just being involved in the sport of wheelchair basketball that is what Evans is going to be forever grateful to for helping him become the person he is today with the identity he’s created for himself.

“It is pretty surreal how everything has turned out and I do think about it a little bit, but I’m also trying to not fully reflect on it all until I finish playing as well,” Evans said.

“When I look back at 11 years ago, almost 12 now when I had a car accident, if you’d have told me back then I was going to be in this situation, I would have laughed at you.

“Obviously I went through a lot of dark times after my accident and basketball was the last thing on my mind at this stage, but that’s the beauty of basketball with how it found me and actually saved me.

“Obviously it’s done a lot of good for me with how I’ve been able to travel with it, go to college, go to Paris and everything like that, the biggest thing it actually has done me is it’s given me my life back.

“It’s given me confidence to live my life and be confident in myself, and who I am. Before that, it sounds bad but I was almost embarrassed to be in a wheelchair because I was never that sort of person growing up,” Evans added.

“I was a strong footy player and having that taken away was hard, but finding wheelchair basketball has given me my identity back, and my life back.

“All these awesome things along the journey are just bonuses I guess because the real thing is just being able to play and finding myself. It’s the sport itself that has changed my life.”

Thoughts coming into new season

As for the upcoming NWBL season with the Wheelcats that begins this coming weekend on the road with three matches against the Southern Districts Titans, Evans is feeling good about the way the team has come together.

It’s somewhat of a new team without the presence of Shaun Norris, but Evans likes the squad they have available with him part of the leadership group with the likes of Jake Kavanagh, Frank Pinder and Simon Koric, and some good young talent coming through.

“I’m very excited about the season ahead and it’s going to be a bit of a different one from all the other Wheelcats seasons that I’ve known,” Evans said.

“That’s purely because one of the all-time greats, Shaun Norris, is all done and dusted so it’s definitely a changing of the guard a little bit.

“We’ve still got some good and experienced players in our squad, and young fellas coming through who will gain a lot of experience.

“It’s exciting times really because we’re going into it with some expectation to really better ourselves as a team, and we definitely want to see some improvement with our younger guys who will see a lot more court time to show what they’re capable of.”

Group full of WA products

Aside from Cooper Spillane who is South Australian but still spent plenty of time in WA and with the Wheelcats while also fresh off playing in the under-23 World Championships alongside Jordan Mouritz, it’s a wholly local playing group too which Evans is proud of.

“We all train together every morning as well so we definitely know each other probably better than we do most of our own families by this point, but I don’t know if I have to take on extra leadership,” Evans said.

“Just with my age and experience, and having been around the world playing over in America where I was a bit of a leader and even before my accident I was a bit of a leader playing footy.

“So I’ve sort of transferred that over into basketball now and try to lead by example and don’t try too much to boss people around or anything. I just try and encourage the boys and lead by the example, which is what I’ll continue to do this year.

“We are fortunate to still have some good leaders and Jake Kavanagh is another one, and Frank Pinder also came back from Paris with myself, and there’s also Benny Moncrieff and Simon Koric so we have some good leaders even without Shaun.”

Playing under gold medal winning coach

Evans is also looking forward to playing a second season with Ben Ettridge back as coach of the Wheelcats with his previous history of taking the team to four straight championships and being Coach of the Year three times on top of gold medal success with the Australian Rollers.

Last year it was just a week long preparation for a season where the Wheelcats still ended up coming third. It’s been a much more extensive pre-season this time around and Evans is looking forward to seeing what the team of 2025 will be capable of.

“Obviously Etto’s got quite a lot of experience with wheelchair basketball having coached a while ago at the highest level but for a lot of us it was our first time with him last year,” Evans said.

“Apart from Jake and Shaun, the rest of us were meeting him for the first time and getting to know his style for the first time.

“So having another year under our belt and a long pre-season with him at the helm is going to do us better just to understand his style more, and his coaching patterns and what he wants from us.

“That will only benefit us from having that consistency in coach because we’ve had a fair few different coaches the last six, seven years. Hopefully he sticks around for a while now to give us that bit of consistency.”

Opening round against the Titans

The Wheelcats become the first team to take on the Southern Districts Titans in NWBL as well this weekend as they take part in the competition for the first time in 2025.

The two teams will face off three times over the weekend starting Saturday at 8am Perth time at Rowland Cowan Stadium. Later on Saturday at 3pm they will battle at Chandler Arena Complex, and then Sunday at 7am WA time it will be back to Rowland Cowan Stadium.

“Obviously they are quite a young squad and I’m looking forward to getting over there. One of the guys who we are versing is Peter Berry from America,” Evans said.

“He was at Alabama the same time I was at Arizona so we’ve had a few battles against each other back then. It will be good to come up against him again and I actually owe him one because his best team us the last time we played.

“They are a young side but they’ve got young Tom Kyle who is leading them and he’s very knowledgeable about basketball, and will have them in good nick. We just have to go out there, play our basketball and trust what we can do and we should be OK.”

Staying involved beyond playing

While there is no reason to suggest that an end to Evans’ playing career is anywhere near the horizon, he would like to remain involved in wheelchair basketball or para sport in general beyond his playing days to help bring that same degree of involvement to others that he found himself.

“I was one of those kids, I say kid but I was 23 at the time, who was in the wilderness when it came to wheelchair basketball and didn’t know what it was about, and I almost got lost to the system,” Evans said.

“Then I realised how much of an influence it is and what a pathway it is to shape someone’s life. That’s definitely something that I want to be involved in is to help shape other people’s lives through sport and para sport.

“Whether that be wheelchair basketball or any other para sport, I definitely see that being my next journey in life.”

Article – Chris Pike

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