Phil Evans (basketball)

Phil Evans
Evans at the 2024 Summer Paralympics
Personal information
Nationality Australia
Born (1990-09-18) September 18, 1990 (age 34)
Sport
Disability class2.5
ClubPerth Wheelcats

Philip "Phil" Evans (born 18 September 1990) is a 2.5 point wheelchair basketball player from Australia. He was a member of the Rollers at the 2024 Paris Paralympics.[1]

Biography

Evans was born on 18 September 1990 and his hometown is Perth, Western Australia.[2] He attended Sacred Heart College, Sorrento.[3] In September 2013, after having celebrating a premiership football win with friends, crashed his car on the way home.[4] The car accident him fracturing his T-11 and T-12 vertebrae, paralysing him from the waist down.[4] In 2018, Evans was awarded the Craig H Nielsen Scholarship, at the University of Arizona, where he majored in business.[5][3]

In 2024, he is employed at the University of Western Australia as an Inclusion Coordinator.[3]

Basketball

Evans played many sports growing up including Australia rules football, indoor and outdoor cricket, mixed netball, rugby union, tennis and golf. After his accident, he coached a senior Whitford's AFL side, where he played A Grade Football in 2009-2010 and 2012–2013.[6]

He was introduced to wheelchair basketball through attending ‘come and try’ day at the Herb Graham Recreation Centre organised by Rebound WA.[4] He was selected to play for the Perth Wheelcats in Australia's National Wheelchair Basketball League and this led him to be offered a University of Arizona scholarship to join their wheelchair basketball program.[4]

He was a member of the Rollers team at the 2024 IWBF Asia-Oceania Championships in Thailand, where they won the gold medal and qualified for 2024 Summer Paralympics.[7]

At the 2024 Paris Paralympics, he was a member of the Rollers that finished fifth with a win/loss record of 3-3.[8]

References

  1. ^ "Fire Burns For Veteran Rollers Picked For Paris 2024 | Paralympics Australia". www.paralympic.org.au. 5 July 2024. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  2. ^ "Phil Evans | Paralympics Australia". www.paralympic.org.au. 8 August 2024. Retrieved 17 August 2024.
  3. ^ a b c "Sacred Heart College - PHIL EVANS (CLASS OF 2007) LISTED IN PARALYMPIC TEAM". www.sacredheart.wa.edu.au. Retrieved 17 August 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d "Perth paraplegic's hoop dreams come true". The West Australian. 17 September 2018. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  5. ^ "Phil Evans | Adaptive Athletics". adaptiveathletics.arizona.edu. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  6. ^ "Facebook". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  7. ^ "Rollers Team Announced for Asia Oceania Championships". www.australia.basketball. 15 December 2023. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  8. ^ "Point Proven, But Rollers Lament Lost Opportunity | Paralympics Australia". www.paralympic.org.au. 6 September 2024. Retrieved 25 September 2024.