B.C. wheelchair basketball Paralympian excited for Paris

Kady Dandeneau has been dribbling basketballs and swishing hoops since her early teens, with dreams of a promising career.

From 2007 to 2013, she played for the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) Timberwolves, but Dandeneau was forced to abandon the sport she loved after repeated severe knee injuries, including major tears of her ACL and MCL, brought it to an end.

In 2015, the then 25-year-old B.C. native from Pender Island started playing wheelchair basketball.

Dandeneau credits her former coach, Tim Frick, with introducing her to the sport and getting her back into the game.

"He was the one who pushed me to get started in this, and I owe it to him. He's the one who has helped me when I was starting from the bottom and now he's here while I'm much more of an impact player." 

Earlier this year, Dandeneau led the scoring in the qualifying tournament for the 2024 Paralympic Games with 25.3 points per game, was the top three-point shooter and ranked third in rebounds and assists.

With the Paralympic Games set to start Wednesday, Dandeneau and her team have been training and preparing.

She says training camps have been intensive, with daily cardio, on-court shooting drills, and weight lifting sessions, which have given her "quite a good push this summer."

Dandeneau says she's also preparing mentally.

"The goal would be gold, but I think for us, we're just going to take it one step at a time," she says. "What you're doing in the moment, let's make that the best we can make it, and then you go from there." 

This is Dandenau's second time competing in the Olympics. She last played in the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games, where she and her team came fifth in women's wheelchair basketball. 

Dandenau says Frick has been a big part of her success.

Frick, who also coached Terry Fox and Rick Hansen in volleyball and track during their younger years, was the coach of Canada's women's wheelchair basketball team when it won three straight Paralympic medals in 1992, 1996 and 2000 and took bronze in 2004. Frick also helped the team win four straight world championships (from 1994 to 2006).

After moving to Pender Island to retire, Frick says he heard a local school in the area needed a basketball coach and signed up shortly afterwards. 

Once a year, Frick would help a couple of Paralympic athletes train for a week, and he says that's when he heard about Dandeneau. 

After finding out about her knee injury, Frick says he persisted in trying to convince her to try out wheelchair basketball and succeeded. 

"She absolutely fell in love with the game. She pestered me to get in the gym every chance we could to learn the chair skills, to learn how to handle the ball."

Pender Island has a small population of just over 2,000 people but is a hotspot for wheelchair basketball in the province. In February, the podcast This is Vancouver Island reported that a fifth of wheelchair basketball players at the B.C. Winter Games were from the island.

Dandenau says Frick continues to bring more Pender kids into wheelchair basketball.

"Which is hilarious. It's so funny that we have this tiny island but somehow managed to produce so many wheelchair basketball athletes."

This is Vancouver Island12:11Pender Island: wheelchair basketball hotspot?!

This year, a fifth of the wheelchair basketball players at the B.C. Winter Games are from Pender Island — but Pender has nowhere near a fifth of the province’s population. Kathryn Marlow looks into the basketball boom for the latest episode of This is Vancouver Island.

Dandeneau says it's been an honour to work with Frick, a one-of-a-kind coach. She also wants people to know what a fun sport wheelchair basketball is.

"I think it's overlooked. It's very physical, fast, [and] it's a very tactical and technically proficient game. There's lots of strategy that goes into it.

"Once people have a bit of exposure to the sport, they really take to it because it's really fun to watch and play. It's just a good time." 

With the 2024 Paralympic Games set to begin, many in her family are coming to Paris to support her, including her dad and stepmother, aunt and uncle and a few of their friends, with many others supporting her from home. 

Team Canada's women's wheelchair basketball team is set to play their first game on Thursday, Aug. 29. People can see the TV schedule of the 2024 Paralympic Games here.