Meet The Paralympic Hopeful Balancing Training With An Accounting Degree

This post is presented in partnership with CQUniversity.

The old joke goes, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practise, practise, practise.”

So, how does one get to the Paralympics? Practise, practise, practise… practise, practise.

That’s how Thomas Holland-Roach is playing it, anyway.

The 20-year-old CQUniversity Brisbane student is in training “five days a week, sometimes twice a day,” with the intention of soon competing against the very best wheelchair basketballers in the world.

“I’m aiming for the under 23 men’s world championships in 2017 and then, after that, hopefully the Paralympics,” he told Student Edge.

“Paralympics are the goal.”

That means multiple morning training sessions (starting at 6am) for Queensland Rolling Thunder, the state’s junior squad, as well as evening exercises with the RSL Queensland Spinning Bullets, in the National Wheelchair Basketball League.

That’s a lot of drills. Thankfully, the victories have made it worthwhile. The Rolling Thunder have triumphed at the Kevin Coombs National Wheelchair Basketball Championship two years running, and his Spinning Bullets took silver in the 2014 season.

Those feats are all the more impressive considering Thomas is balancing his hoops with a Bachelor of Accounting degree.

Growing up, Thomas was in and out of wheelchairs, having been born with spina bifida. In 2004, however, a nine-year-old Thomas endured a devastating injury that would keep him from walking again.

“I ruptured my patellar tendon and my patella in my left knee, so that put me in the chair permanently, because it got an infection,” he said.

Not that he missed a beat when it came to sports.

“When I could walk and run, I played soccer and all those things in school, and then once I was in the chair I started doing athletics, pretty much straight after I got out of hospital.”

He discovered wheelchair basketball at a ‘Come and Try’ Day. It was love at first sight.

“With athletics you’re on your own, but with basketball you get teammates and that comradery. You get to meet new people and play with friends. From there [the passion] just grew and grew.”

Thomas insists there’s not much different between wheelchair basketball and able-bodied basketball. For instance, it's still five a side.

“There’s only the one difference, pretty much. We don’t have the double-dribble rule. Our ‘travel’ is two pushes instead of two steps.”

His devotion to the game has not gotten in the way of his study; or, at least, he’s worked hard to not let it.

“It is tough, but CQU has been really helpful. They’ve been willing to change course times around so that it fits in with training, which has been good,” he said.

With a year left to go on his Bachelor of Accounting degree, Thomas admitted that his circumstances influenced his choice of course.

“Because I am in a wheelchair, it just makes it easier to get around [in an accounting job] and I won’t have to worry about being out in, like, a field in some other occupation,” he said.

“Plus, I’ve always been good with numbers.”

Still, it’s unlikely he’ll put basketball to rest once he's got that degree in hand. He’s even considering taking up more training sessions; something that would be unthinkable to most second-year uni students. (In fact, the frequent 6am starts are already unthinkable.)

“If I can do more, I’ll improve even more,” he said.

Photos supplied by Thomas Holland-Roach.

Open up your universe and consider a degree at CQUniversity, just like Thomas. For more information, go to cqu.edu.au