27 May Stars in the West
As excitement builds for the 2025 WNWBL season, our country’s best players will also have an eye on the future and the next opportunity to represent as a Glider.
In January, Basketball Australia named a 17 player extended squad, among them Taishar Ovens who will once again roll out for Perth alongside fellow Aussie squad members Ebony Stevenson, Lauren Hardbottle, Sara Houston and Georgia Gott.
Ovens trains five days a week as well as weekly Wheelcats sessions.
“Wheelcats preparations are going pretty good. In Perth we’re pretty lucky, most of us get to train most mornings at the Western Australian Institute of Sport so just adding Wheelcats training now as we start to come together as a team,” said Ovens
It’s a jam packed schedule for women’s wheelchair basketball with five rounds of WNWBL with Perth hosting in rounds 2, 3 and 4.
Despite it not being a Paralympic or World Championship year, it’s a full calendar for the Gliders as well. In February they won Japan’s Osaka Cup and in June, Australia is set to send two teams to the 2025 IWBF 3X3 Asia Oceania Cup and also compete at the World 3×3 Championships in South Africa later in August, with the WNWBL set to pause to accommodate these pivotal events.
All that’s before the Asia Oceania Zone Championships in Thailand in November, which serve as a qualifier for the 2026 World Championships in Ottawa, Canada.
“With the Gliders my focus is staying in shape, getting as many games as I can with the Wheelcats in preparation for the AOZ Qualifiers in Thailand in November.”
Ovens continues to put in the work, taking nothing for granted as the national program rebuilds.
“In terms of what I’ve achieved, a lot of resilience, I haven’t always had an easy path into being a Glider. I missed a few teams that a lot of people thought I would be on and had to fight back to get in.”
“There’s a lot of resilience I look back on and how far I’ve come to now being one of the key players for the Gliders.”
“It feels so surreal because it feels like I’m a rookie some days so it’s hard to look back on it.”
Ovens says she often seeks advice from other athletes in other sports as a source of inspiration and guidance.
“I used to work with Kane Perris at VisAbility, a paracyclist, I’d speak with him and Tegan Reder who’s a swimmer now moving onto cycling and my other good friend Ryan Honschooten.”
“Talking to them and having situations like that is a lot more beneficial than sometimes talking with the team because not all of us are in that same situation and you don’t want to take away from their positive news too.”
ROUND 1 (30 May – 1 June)
Gold Coast Rollers vs Perth Wheelcats
Saturday 10am
Saturday 7pm (6pm 3X3)
Sunday 10am (9am 3X3)
(CIS) Carrara Indoor Sports, QLD