Over 200 Canadian wheelchair basketball athletes in Edmonton for national tournament

Over 200 athletes across Canada are competing at the Saville Community Sports Centre in South Edmonton to get the gold medal at the 2026 Canadian Wheelchair Basketball League finals.

“As we all know, Edmonton is a city of champions, and we’re no shortage of hosting great events, both at the international level and at the club level, and this is just another opportunity to show a different sport on the disabled Paralympic side,” said Darrell Nordell, the head coach of the Alberta Northern Lights Wheelchair Basketball.

Four Edmonton teams are in the game, including the Alberta Northern Lights Wheelchair Basketball Society.

The Edmonton team was thrown a curveball this year. Back in November, CityNews brought you the story of how some of their wheelchairs were stolen with a trailer from Stony Plain. The chairs were meant for school programs and recruitment, costing about $8,000 each to replace.

“I feel like your personal space is violated, even though it really didn’t happen to you directly. So it makes you more aware that you really need to take precautions to protect your stuff because these wheelchairs and I are like I said, they’re $8,000 to $9,000 new. That’s a giant loss for us. If we can’t recover that equipment,” said Ross Norton, the program manager of Alberta Northern Lights Wheelchair Basketball.

Luckily, the trailer was recovered two days after a public plea for help, but only about half of the wheelchairs were recovered. The team needed to build replacements from old parts for eight chairs. Despite the obstacle, the organization is moving forward.

“Yeah, we’re not going to little. Let a little incident ruin our hopes and dreams, and you know, recruiting strategies and stuff like that,” said Norton.

They are one of 22 teams from across Canada competing in what is set to be the largest national wheelchair basketball final in the country.

“Makes me feel pretty good, like I’ve been to other CWBL finals around the country, and this one’s really nice cuz it’s at home … it feels very special to have here, and you’re going to see the level of wheelchair basketball that is within Canada,” said Judah Websdale, a player with Alberta Northern Lights Wheelchair Basketball Ssociety.

Whether the players have a disability or an able body, all playing for the love of the game.

“Especially if you have the ball, you need one or two hands on the ball. Plus, you need hands on your wheels, so there are ways to stop, obviously, but it’s just that it was a big learning curve for me,” said Koleta Kopanas, an Edmonton Inferno Wheelchair Basketball.

Norton added, “To me, I think it’s more like hockey, where you want to keep your momentum going, you want to. You want to travel in circles. You never really want to stop and back up.”

For Norton, he says his organization is happy they were able to find chairs to continue sharing the sport with Edmonton area students and has already taken extra measures to continue to do so in the future.

“I think we’re fairly prepared for that. I don’t want to give all my secrets away, but yes,” said Norton.

The team will be competing at the three-day tournament at the Saville Sports Centre, which is free for the public to attend and cheer.