{"id":592465,"date":"2026-04-08T02:03:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T02:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/592465\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T02:03:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T02:03:12","slug":"the-passion-and-expertise-at-the-centre-of-wheelchair-basketball-surge-on-the-fraser-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/592465\/","title":{"rendered":"the \u201cpassion and expertise\u201d at the centre of wheelchair basketball surge on the Fraser Coast"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-ccp-border-bottom=\"0px none #000000\" data-ccp-padding-bottom=\"0px\" data-ccp-border-between=\"0px none #000000\" data-ccp-padding-between=\"0px\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.frasercoasters.org\/about\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Fraser Coast Basketball<\/a> recently became an affiliated association with Basketball Queensland, cementing its status as one of the strongest represented clubs in the state\u2019s wheelchair basketball landscape.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-ccp-border-bottom=\"0px none #000000\" data-ccp-padding-bottom=\"0px\" data-ccp-border-between=\"0px none #000000\" data-ccp-padding-between=\"0px\">At the heart of this growth is\u00a0Michael Oxley, whose dedication propelled the program to new heights.\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>Originally from Canberra, Oxley discovered the sport at the AIS and followed his journey as a sports administrator to the meteoric growth of wheelchair basketball in Central Queensland.\u00a0\u00a0Fraser Coast\u2019s President of five years,\u00a0Peter Kalbfell,\u00a0delved into detail on Michael Oxley\u2019s impact, growing a community in Fraser Coast and surrounding areas.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-ccp-border-bottom=\"0px none #000000\" data-ccp-padding-bottom=\"0px\" data-ccp-border-between=\"0px none #000000\" data-ccp-padding-between=\"0px\">\u201cHe (Oxley) regularly drives up and down the Bruce Highway, often with carloads of wheelchairs and kids to different tournaments, programs and events across the state\u201d,\u00a0says\u00a0Kalbfell.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMichael is an awesome mentor, and has always encouraged me as a player,\u00a0coach\u00a0and president. He has given passion and\u00a0expertise\u00a0to the wheelchair basketball fraternity for over 25 years.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The dream started with a single player on a squash court in the early 2000\u2019s.\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>Since then, Michael and Peter have grown the Fraser Coast wheelchair association to currently have\u00a030 registered wheelchair basketball players.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMichael was instrumental in getting the Fraser Coasters up and running, setting up a committee and getting the word out,\u201d Peter added.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The club now hosts multiple programs. Monday nights run from 4pm to 8pm, featuring team training, wheelchair matches and 3&#215;3 games. Additionally, the associations\u2019 representative team has two-hour training sessions each Saturday morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Fraser Coast Wheelchair Basketball Association has strong foundations, yet Peter Kalbfell sees even more potential with plans underway to restart a Wednesday night 3&#215;3 program in Hervey Bay.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMichael\u2019s influence on the community has been profound, building the framework for success,\u201d he says.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was the driving force behind the conception and development of the Frenchville\u00a0Rockwheelers, based in Central Queensland in the early 2000s. He then brought the same talents to the Hervey Bay and Maryborough region, building the Fraser Coasters club from the ground up,\u201d Peter said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Through passion, mentorship and unrelenting commitment, Michael Oxley continues to grow and shape the community in Fraser Coast.\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>If you&#8217;re interested in getting involved or playing wheelchair basketball in Queensland, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.queensland.basketball\/play\/programs\/wheelchair-basketball\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>For more information on the Fraser Coast Basketball Association,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/herveybaybasketball.com.au\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">click here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fraser Coast Basketball recently became an affiliated association with Basketball Queensland, cementing its status as one of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":592466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85,83],"class_list":{"0":"post-592465","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-text"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=592465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}