Ben’s shooting for stardom

By Sarah Schwager
A BERWICK teenager, who has worn a prosthetic limb since he was eight months, is setting his sights on professional wheelchair basketball.
Ben Hodgens, 17, has played basketball since he was nine, but said he moved to wheelchair basketball because there was no competition for people with prosthetic limbs, even at the Paralympics.
Ben was born with limb deficiencies and webbed fingers on his left hand.
His right foot was level with his left knee joint and his parents had no option but to have his foot amputated.
When Ben was last reported in the Gazette in 2000, he was raising money to watch the Sydney Paralympics.
Through donations and fundraising, he and his mother Alison managed to raise the $2000 required to send them to the event.
Ben now plays in some of the top wheelchair basketball competitions in the state.
Last year he played for Victoria in the national junior basketball championships and in April this year he played for Victoria in the 2005 Junior Games for the Disabled.
The year 12 Hillcrest Christian College student said that, while he enjoyed playing basketball, it was difficult to fit in with his VCE.
He is studying Maths Methods, Physics, Chemistry and English and did Information Processing and Management (IPM) last year.
He said he was keen to go to university but he was not sure yet what he wanted to study.
In the meantime he is continuing his basketball and started training for the Pacific School Games, involving more than 26 countries, a couple of weeks ago.
Ben said he wanted to continue playing wheelchair basketball after he finished school and was also setting his sights on playing professionally.
He said he had been given a different view of disabled sports when he went to the Paralympics and had seen many events that he never knew existed.
Ben learned to walk with his prosthetic leg.
As a baby, he also had an operation on his left hand to remove the webbing, leaving him with three fingers and a thumb.
Mrs Hodgens said she was proud of her son and he was lucky he had always had such supportive friends.
“He does well at his sport and really wants to get to the senior national levels,” she said.