Basketball star heads to Paris | Coffs Coast Sport | Local Sports in Coffs Coast

27th June 2009

RETURNING to Coffs Harbour yesterday to sign the mural painted in his honour at Sportz Central, wheelchair basketball star Bill Latham admitted that he can't wait to leave town again.

Not that he has anything against the town that he grew up in.

“I've got to back to Sydney as I'm flying out to England and Paris on Sunday and then the under 23 World Championships,” the 19 year-old said.

Latham has been selected in the under 23 team that will hopefully bring back a gold medal and the former John Paul College student has also made his way back into the national team the Rollers.

Last year Latham suffered the heartbreak of being the last person cut from the team before the Paralympics in Beijing but he says being back in the Rollers team is fantastic.

“Getting back into the team is always great and from the Paralympic World Cup and on it's just about cementing my spot in the team,” he said.

Latham returned to Coffs for a whistle stop visit to sign the mural that artist Lee Holmes painted of him the new Sportz Central foyer.

Looking at the artwork that immortalises the local boy-made good story, Latham admits that he's humbled by the gesture.

“I started in this stadium,” he recalled.

“My brothers and sisters used to play in this stadium and then I started to play wheelchair basketball here and to have it up on the wall it's definitely an honour for people to see it every day when they come in.

“Some people will know me, some won't but some might ask questions to do with it and that's definitely good for wheelchair basketball here.”

Most of the star player's time these days is actually spent in the Spanish city of Seville where he plays wheelchair basketball professionally.

Latham has been a member of the championship winning Once Andalucia team and this year was the league's leading scorer.

“I've had some pretty good games over in Spain,” Latham admitted.

“The team is working well together and in turn I'm getting lots of court time so it is all coming together slowly.”

He does admit though that while it's fantastic to play so often in such a tough competition, there are little hurdles.

“My Spanish is very little but I can speak enough to get by,” he said.

Latham admitted that this was only a minor hurdle when he considers the positive aspects of living in Europe.

“The lifestyle is great,” he said.

“We train three days a week, twice a day and we play a game on the weekend and then we've got the rest of the days off to do what we want basically.

“We train for maybe four or five hours on the days we train but there's plenty of time in between to do what you want, maybe go to a different city that is close, there's nothing difficult about it.”

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