Avril Harris is a one lucky dude.
As an able-bodied athlete and one of the go-to shooters on the B.C. provincial wheelchair basketball team, not only can the 23-year-old from Prince George spin his wheels up to breakneck speed, but if he gets knocked over driving to the net he has the use of his legs to pick himself up and get back into his chair again.
Only a few of the players gathered in the gym Saturday for the Team B.C. training camp at Duchess Park secondary school have what it takes physically to accomplish that task without help.
There's one other reason for Harris to consider himself fortunate , which has nothing to do with his physical abilities but everything to do with the work he puts into training for his sport. While most athletes have just one shot at representing their home province in the Canada Winter Games, Harris is on the verge of competing for a third time when Prince George hosts the event in February. The Canada Games tournament is open to athletes of both genders aged 24-and-younger, born on or after Jan. 1, 1991.
"It's going to be a great experience to be in my hometown with my friends and family watching and the stands packed with people that want to see a gold medal around your neck," said Harris, who played for B.C. as a 16-year-old in 2007 and was on the team for the Games in Halifax in 2011.
"There's some pressure, but that's part of the game. You just have to keep it under control and just focus on what you need to do to get it done. For a non-contact sport, there's a lot of contact and it can get really tense at times."
Most of the rules of standup basketball apply but in wheelchair basketball players are allowed just two pushes on the wheelchair before they have to pass, shoot or dribble.
Harris was introduced to the sport at a young age by his father Pat, a longtime provincial team member and local pioneer of the sport who helped develop provincial and national team members Bo Hedges, Erik Hagreen and Elisha Williams, John Cormack and Eric Bittner.
Non-disabled athletes like Harris are rated 4.5 on the disability scale, while a quadriplegic or someone without the use of their body below the waist would be ranked a 1.0. During games, at any time teams of five cannot exceed a combined 15 disability points. Non-disabled athletes are not allowed to compete in international wheelchair basketball events like the Paralympics and world championships.
Fourteen-year-old Joel Ewert, a Grade 9 student at Prince George secondary school, is also in the mix for Team B.C. Twelve athletes and two spares will make up the Canada Games team. The final selections will be announced Nov. 1.
"It would mean so much to me, I'm never going to get this opportunity again to be in a tournament this big in my hometown," said Ewert. "I maybe wish it was my last Canada Games, like Avril, so I could be more mature and have more experience. But I've been in a few tournaments before and I know what it takes."
Ewert, whose disability rating is 1.0, played in the 2014 junior national championship in March in Edmonton, helping B.C. finish fourth in what will serve as the seeding tournament for the Canada Games. He's been playing wheelchair basketball since he was five. Born with cerebral palsy, which affects his ability to control his muscles, Ewert has always participated in sports and roughhouse activities with his older brother Carl, and that developed the upper-body strength and coordination be depends on to play wheelchair basketball.
"I feel a lot more free, not as restricted when I'm in my chair as when I'm on the walker -- I feel fast,." said Ewert, who uses a walker to get around on his feet. "A lot of people are forced into the game by injury but I've had a lot of time to grow up and just see how it's done. Just seeing other players who came from Prince George and had success inspired me to pursue the sport. I have an older brother who plays Tier 2 midget hockey in Tier 2 and I want to be as competitive as he is."
Ewert works out in the gym twice a week with PacificSport Northern B.C. and has basketball practice with Harris three days per week. They are the only older competitive wheelchair basketball players in the city. Across the province, there are about 600 players, most of whom are affiliated with local clubs.
If he makes the B.C. team, Ewert know his role will be more as a defensive specialist, while players like Harris, Erin Higgins and world junior team veterans Aiden Love and Jack Kosterman will be B.C.'s top shooters.
"We have a fantastic team and I have a great group of kids but we're pretty much a group of boys playing against men," said Team B.C. head coach Marni Abbott-Peter. "Quebec and Ontario are right near that under-23 age but half of our kids are like 14, 15, 16 years old so that don't have the same level of experience.
"There will be lot of pressure on kids like Avril, being in his hometown. Everybody from his grandma to his kindergarten teacher will probably be here watching him and cheering him on and there will be a lot of media attention focused on him and Joel, if he makes the team. But we have a really good chance of doing well. We have a chance to be on the podium with the talent we have."
Over the next few months Harris and Ewert will be part of a Langley Gold Rush Division 2 junior team that will complete in a provincial league on weekends in several B.C. cities. Team B.C. will host at least two more camps and will play in tournament in Alberta in the lead-up to the Games.
Having been part of the Canada Games twice, Harris said most people he talks to in the city have no idea of what's in store for Prince George during the Games, Feb. 13-March 1.
"Everyone talks about how much money it costs but there are more athletes for Canada Games than there are in the Olympics and Paralympics," said Harris. "People are going to be quite surprised at how exciting it's going to be. They'll see people from out of town that don't come here at all are amazed at what we have here. It's going to be a really good show."
