How Exeter Otters Wheelchair Basketball Club continue to change the game for disabled community in the West Country

Exeter Otters Wheelchair Basketball Club has changed the game for the disabled community in the West Country and Jack Davey remembers the moment when it all hit home.

“We did a motability event recently and one of the coaches from Otters’ first team came along to help out,” he remembers.

“There was another kid who had the same disability as him and you could see straight away from their interaction that the kid saw someone like him and thought ‘I could be like that one day if I work hard’.

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“I like seeing that kind of thing. For me, that’s what it’s all about.”

Founded in 1980, Exeter Otters is the UK’s oldest wheelchair basketball club and has produced Paralympians like Jade Atkin, who made her debut for ParalympicsGB at Paris 2024.

But the club’s legacy will be the way in which it has dismantled barriers to access in disability sport in the South West, ensuring others have the same opportunities as Jade and Jack to participate.

With 60 to 70 members attending and sessions running four times a week, it is a pillar of the wheelchair basketball community, which numbers around 3,500 regular players nationwide.

Davey is the club’s Chair and a powerful advocate for the positive impact that wheelchair basketball can have on the physical and mental wellbeing of those who play.

“What struck me more than anything was the fact it was a really inclusive sport - anyone and everyone can play,” said Davey.

“My brother and I used to play. It gave us a sport where we could play together. That’s what struck me the most, that everyone was the same. You sit in a wheelchair and everyone is on the same playing field. The family atmosphere and feeling that everyone is one is a really nice aspect.”

Davey tried other team sports, like football, as a youngster but found his mojo on the basketball court from the age of 14. He rose into the professional ranks and got to travel the world playing the sport he loves.

As well as achieving his dreams as a player, he recognised the richness of the experiences he was having and that he could have an impact on many more lives than his own. Jack absorbed shining examples of accessibility and inclusion like a sponge, and returned to Devon as a man on a mission.

“I wanted to move back to help develop the South West in terms of disability sport and wheelchair basketball in particular - that’s my speciality,” Jack said.

“I was fortunate to see the highest level of basketball and where it could get to, I got to see how different cultures approached it and I thought, ‘I can really bring that knowledge back’ to develop it in the South West.

“Meeting people from all over the world helped me learn about these cultures - I wanted to come back to the UK and help out, to get people moving essentially.”

Jack’s outstanding contribution has been recognised with a nomination for the BBC Make a Difference Awards, testament to the wheelchair basketball boom he has presided over.

But for Jack, success isn’t measured by individual accolades but by the number of lives he’s helped transform through sport.

“I had great parents who were really supportive and pushed me to push me to the next level,” said Davey. “My Mum always told me to prove people wrong and now I’m a better, more-rounded version of myself. That’s a really important lesson.

“Team sport is a great way to experience a family environment where you can feel safe and secure to develop into whoever you want to be - as well as staying fit and active."

Every Body Moves - to inspire, inform and signpost disabled people and those interested in disability sport to high quality opportunities. For more information visit: https://everybodymoves.org.uk