Denied the chance to play in a team when growing up on the North-West Coast, the 31-year-old is relishing the opportunity presented by wheelchair basketball.
The support of ParaQuad Tasmania and the Tasmanian Institute of Sport has enabled Gott to progress through the Perth Wheelcats in the Women’s National Wheelchair Basketball League into the extended Gliders squad.
“Training with the national team is hard work,” she said. “I feel I’ve got a long way to go but it is amazing to get the opportunity to be able to participate at that level and hopefully put on the green and gold.
“I’d love to represent Australia at some point at whatever level that may be. Playing in the national league is awesome and something I did not think I’d be doing three years ago.”
Such sporting opportunity is a stark contrast to the situation Latrobe-born Gott faced in childhood.
A viral infection at the age of two left her with paralysis and polio-like symptoms in her left leg which required use of a brace and crutches and limited recreational pursuits to mainly swimming.
But after a love of bushwalking saw her complete the Three Capes Track and Great Ocean Walk, Gott attended a wheelchair basketball come-and-try day with Paraquad Tasmania in 2020 and five years later has just returned from her second camp with the national team.
“In 2022 I was asked to go to a development pathways camp at the AIS and it snowballed from there and now I’m part of the extended Gliders squad which is amazing,” she said.
A high performance scholarship under the TIS’s individual support program saw her coached by Basketball Tasmania’s North-West development officer Hayden Zasadny and recruited by Perth in the WNWBL.
“The Wheelcats asked me to join because they were looking for some more rookie players,” Gott said. “I fly over for rounds of the national league. We had a great season last year and came second. After that I was asked to go to a national camp and then named in the extended squad this year.
“It’s lots of fun and great to get that high level of competition and build my skills. The greatest challenge has been just training down here by myself so going to the camps has been challenging but in a good way because it keeps me motivated to keep getting better and keep up with the other girls.”
Educated at Nixon Street Primary, Devonport High School and Don College, Gott also studied occupational therapy at Deakin University in Geelong for four years.
She has watched the WNWBL expand to six teams this season and names Gliders great Shelley Matheson, who has won medals at three Paralympic Games, and three-time Paralympic wheelchair race champion Kurt Fearnley among her sporting inspirations.
“I’m not a diehard sport follower until the Olympics and Paralympics come around and I’m glued to the TV watching everything,” she said.
“Kurt Furnley’s autobiography was one of the best I have read in terms of the way he talks about his disability and the stuff he’s done in life.
“And the whole Gliders squad are role models for me. I’ve come into this at quite an old age. I didn’t take up the sport until I was 28 and only seriously in the last year and a half, but I’m playing with girls that are 18 or 19 and about to go off and play wheelchair basketball in the US on scholarships which is super cool.”
Gott said she has observed a huge shift in the perception of para sport during her lifetime.
“Wheelchair basketball and the TIS have given me a feel for team sport which I never had growing up.
“There weren’t a lot of opportunities for kids with disabilities to play in team sport on the North-West Coast then and I never got to experience it, so it’s been cool coming into that space and getting to feel part of a team and being around other amazing individuals who are so inspiring. The whole environment is special to be involved in and I’m excited to see where it all goes from here.
“The last couple of Paralympics in particular it’s been really exciting to watch the increased coverage we’re getting on TV compared to what we had before that, which was nothing really.
“It’s cool to see that change and what that will do for the younger generation, particularly in Tasmania. I just don’t think we have the awareness down here. I didn’t even know that wheelchair basketball had a national league in Australia until I started playing in it.
“It is exciting to see para units starting up across the different states and super exciting that Tassie is getting one and we are getting more support.”
By Rob Shaw