The Wollongong Roller Hawks will be back in action this weekend as the Wheelchair Basketball Illawarra Festival comes to the region.
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More than 50 games will be played across five days, with Wollongong welcoming teams from around NSW as well as Queensland, South Australia and New Zealand.
The Roller Hawks will be in action for the festival's main tournament, the Slam Down Under. The Illawarra club has organised the event in conjunction with Wheelchair Basketball NSW/ACT.
The action will begin on Wednesday night and continue on Thursday night at Shellharbour City Stadium with the masters division, before the competition moves to Berkeley's Illawarra Sports Stadium. The 3x3 division will take place on Friday night, followed by the Slam Down Under on the weekend.
Saturday and Sunday's event will feature two divisions with the Roller Hawks fielding two teams in both.
In division one, the Roller Hawks White side will feature the likes of Brett Stibners, Shawn Russell, Nick Taylor, Darren Hayes and Nick Scott, while Roller Hawks Black will include Tristan Knowles, Luke Pople, Tim Rushby-Smith, Matt Caruana and Aussie Roller Jontee Brown, who currently resides in Canberra but will link up with the Illawarra club for the tournament.
The Roller Hawks development side - known as the Eagles - will field two teams in division two, with Illawarra Eagles Black featuring James Williams, Didem Yildirim, Brian Gardner, Mark Hutchings and Wayne Chase.
The Illawarra Eagles White side includes Eino Okkonen, Joe Jankowski, Geoff Adams, Canberra's Luke Greco and Queensland's Darren and Maxine Belling.
Division one is played under National League rules which require all players to have a classified disability. Division two plays on a more relaxed points system and is open to able-bodied players.
Saturday's action will also include a celebrity game at noon, entry for spectators is free.
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