Wheelchair basketball athletes from P.E.I. part of Team New Brunwick

Islanders Mara Duncan and Juliet Trainor are competing in wheelchair basketball at their first Canada Winter Games.

They're both 11, but playing with teammates and competitors in their mid-20s. 

Duncan was asked to try the sport, and thought it might be something she'd enjoy. 

"I don't like running a lot, and I like doing sports, but there's not that many sports without running. So when I decided I could sit down and play basketball, I thought that would help me a lot." 

Trainor said she's not daunted by the physical intensity of the sport.

"I find it's very rough, but it's fun, and if you learn how to not fall then you should be okay throughout the whole game," she said.

Duncan and Trainor — as well as 21-year-old Brandon Gillis from Indian River, P.E.I. — are playing for Team New Brunswick during the Games, because P.E.I. didn't have enough athletes to field its own team.

Combined teams from Atlantic Canada are not uncommon in Canada Games wheelchair basketball.

Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia also have a combined team at the Games, under the Team Newfoundland and Labrador banner.

This is Gillis's third Canada Games, and his second time playing as a member of Team New Brunswick.

In 2015, he played on the combined P.E.I.-New Brunswick team under the Island's banner, and then under the New Brunswick banner in 2019.

Adam Loo, an Islander, is coach of the New Brunswick team. He also coached the 2015 and 2019 teams.

He said many people don't realize wheelchair basketball can be played by people with or without a physical disability.

"Wheelchair basketball doesn't probably get the exposure that we know that other sports do. And that's one great thing about Canada Games ... you get lots of exposure, lots of people