SA teen with HSP shines in basketball

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Selected in U23 State team

 

Despite playing wheelchair basketball for just a year and a half, 19 year old Tobias Karsten from Kulpara, South Australia has been selected in the State under-23 team.

 

Tobias enjoyed basketball as a child before being diagnosed with spastic paraplegia. He now requires a wheelchair and began playing wheelchair basketball socially for Disability Recreation and Sports at the Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre Gym before being scouted to play for the South Australian team.

 

Tobias has worked incredibly hard over the past year to get one step closer toward his dream of playing professional basketball. He was presented with a 2018 Novita Achievement Award, the ‘Michael Wooley Recreational and Sporting Achievement Award’, on November 20. The annual awards are presented to Novitakids and young adults living with disability and recognise their excellence in sporting, recreational, academic and personal accomplishments. He is currently one of the youngest level 4 ranked players on the ‘Meanies’ team.

 

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Basketball Australia has just invited Tobias to join the Australian Development Camp in Canberra early next year, where he will have the opportunity to learn from basketball professionals and develop his skills even further.

Tobias said his passion for basketball has helped bolster his self-confidence.  “It really has helped me become more independent in all aspects of my life,” he said. Apart from his basketball career, Tobias is now also focused on furthering his education and he has recently enrolled at TAFE.

Novita therapist Adine Leon Gonzalez said since finding a passion for basketball Tobias has grown in so many areas. “The discipline and hard work he has learnt through basketball has now been applied to all areas of his life,” she said.

 

SOURCE: The Flinders News, November 24 2018

Tobias aims for career in basketball

Read the full article: https://www.theflindersnews.com.au/story/5775894/tobias-aims-for-career-in-basketball/

 

SOURCE: Yorke Peninsula Country Times, 23 October 2018

Karsten carving up the court

by Jess Liddy

Read the full article: http://www.ypct.com.au/index.php/sport/item/17985-karsten-carving-up-the-court

 

 

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