It all started with a small program at the Royal Ottawa Hospital 50 years ago.
Now, the Ottawa-Carleton Wheelchair Sports Association is calling Carleton University home, rolling into the new year with five decades of achievements and milestones behind it.
The association welcomes athletes of all ages, genders, abilities and skill levels, bringing players together each Tuesday night for wheelchair basketball.
Whether in 1976 or 2026, the club champions inclusivity and accessibility in the wheelchair basketball community and stands as the oldest wheelchair basketball club in Canada.
For players and coaches, the half-century milestone reflects decades of community-building and lasting memories.
“It’s had such a major impact on my life,” said wheelchair basketball coach and player Sam Graham, who has been with the team since 2010.
Graham is a two-time recipient of Wheelchair Basketball Canada’s True Sport Award — once in 2013 and again last year. The award recognized his role in developing the wheelchair basketball community through sportsmanship and fair play. Graham was integral in bringing both the junior and adult programs to Carleton’s campus as a centralized location — a move that increased club registration by 150 per cent.
“Sam loves our sport and loves to ensure that everyone on the court, on the bench, or in the stands is enjoying themselves,” Wheelchair Basketball Canada wrote about Graham. “He brings humour and fun to every game, and his entire club appreciates that.”
Graham, who has cerebral palsy, started playing wheelchair basketball when he was 15 years old and quickly took on coaching. While he has played and coached with the club for more than 16 years, he credits the people before him for the club’s 50-year lifetime.
“For a parasport organization, it’s hard to have that kind of sustainability,” said Graham, who also played for Team Ontario.
Graham pointed to Linda Kutrowski, a four-time paralympic medalist who he’s known since he was a kid, as a guiding force. Dubbed his “basketball grandma,” Graham said Kutrowski was a founding member of the club 50 years ago.
“We kind of have a living legend in our club that was there when everything began,” Graham said. “It’s amazing that we have the chance to be able to pick her brain about everything.”
While Kutrowski hasn’t officially served as a coach in the program, Graham says that her wealth of knowledge and experience has influenced generations of players in Ottawa.
Kutrowski’s 20 years of experience with Canada’s national team comes in handy when elevating parasport athletes, especially the four players with the association (Desmond O’Shaughnessy, Tayler O’Shaughnessy, Tyler Bickford and Russell Wilson) looking to represent Team Ontario at the Canada Winter Games next winter.
Among the players playing with the provincial squad, Graham added several players from the club represent teams on the local or international level as well.
A game-changing partnership
Graham sees their collaboration with Carleton to create the Junior Ravens Wheelchair Basketball program as an enormous recent success.
The program started as a dream for Michael Cicchillitti, Carleton’s assistant manager of children’s programs and adapted sport, who said they couldn’t replace a week of basketball camp with wheelchair basketball camp because of funding and budget issues.
But in August 2021, Carleton received Canadian Tire Jumpstart funding to uphold the Ravens’ quality standards of wheelchairs, coaching and training.
Three months later, the program took shape.
“A lot of people were proud of what was happening and what we were doing,” Cicchillitti said. “There’s a great sense of pride that we’re all working together.”
Cicchillitti partnered with Graham, the wheelchair sports association’s vice-president at the time, as well as Abilities Ottawa, to start building trust in the community.
“We were always inclusive, but we never really had any parasports,” Cicchillitti said. “Parents realized that [we’re] partnered with these groups — reputable groups — that’s how that trust began.”
From eight registrations in their inaugural season, the Junior Ravens Wheelchair Basketball program has since attracted 111 total registrations.
“These are big wins for us to see that they’re growing, [the numbers] are not going down,” Cicchillitti said, noting the program’s 80 per cent retention rate.
Whether it’s watching the same boy with a pizza shark T-shirt grow with the program, bringing guest coaches to practices or laughing while trying to kick players off the court at the end of an expo, Cicchillitti said he can’t describe the impact the program leaves.
“It’s hard to explain in words,” he said, but the program’s effect is “really one of those things you can see.”
The program kickstarted a wave of adaptive sporting options now offered at Carleton, including adaptive boccia, strength and flexibility, para swimming, inclusive dance and a medley parasport summer camp. Many of these programs have free registration for current Carleton students.
Still, wheelchair basketball remains at the heart of Ravens’ adaptive sports.
“The wheelchair basketball program is our flagship program,” Carleton’s Athletic Director Yolana Junco said in an interview. “We’re becoming the place to go when talking about wheelchair basketball.”
Cicchillitti said he’s hoping to introduce an intramural wheelchair basketball league for Carleton students to grow the sport to a wider audience.
“We want to make sure it continues, that this partnership stays as long as [possible],” Cicchillitti said. “We want to see new kids come in.”
In February, the Mini Royals team, comprised of Junior Ravens Wheelchair Basketball players, will be hosting a Quebec conference tournament with free tickets for the public.
“A destination like no other”
Plus, the 2026 Wheelchair Basketball World Championships will begin in the nation’s capital in September, welcoming 336 athletes from 28 teams worldwide.
TD Place Arena and Carleton will alternate hosting roles for the championships in the 94 games spread out across 11 days.
Graham said this is a perfect opportunity to bring his teams to watch the pros and experience the highest level of wheelchair basketball on their home court.
“It’s going to be amazing to continue to encourage people to dream and grow the game and play it at whatever level they can,” Graham said.
“Everybody dreams of going to a world championship or a Paralympic Games.”
As his club eagerly waits for the World Championships in September, Graham is looking to plan a commemorative gala to celebrate the club’s 50th anniversary while he keeps coaching younger athletes.
Graham hopes they, too, will go on to coach, joining him and other program alumni who’ve gone on to leadership roles.
“The reason why you start is for yourself, and the reason why you stick around is to be with all of your friends,” Graham said.
“When you’re done playing, all you have left is the memories and the friendships.”
Featured image by Simon McKeown/the Charlatan
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