The Montreal native was first introduced to the game by coach Marc Antoine Ducharme
Lionel Tamoki was first introduced to wheelchair basketball after meeting with Senior Women’s National Team coach Marc Antoine Ducharme.
Tamoki was dribbling a basketball on his walk home from school when Ducharme stopped the then-teenager to gauge his interest in the game. Growing up, Tamoki had aspirations of playing professional stand up basketball, but due to his disability, he realized in high school that wouldn’t be possible.
“He approached me and asked if I would like to try wheelchair basketball,” Tamoki recalled of the meeting with Ducharme. “I always thought I would like to try it because, knowing myself and my abilities, I knew I could be good. I know the basics of the game.”
Though excited at the prospect of trying wheelchair basketball, Tamoki didn’t get his parents’ approval to play. The Montreal native waited two years before another wheelchair basketball opportunity came to him to try the game.
The basketball coach at Tamoki’s high school set up an opportunity for him to try wheelchair basketball, and Tamoki finally got to play during a charity game.
“That was the first time I played. I was bad, really bad, but I had a lot of fun,” Tamoki said. “I was like, ‘I knew I would love wheelchair basketball, but I didn’t know I would love it that much.’
“Right away, I fell in love with the sport, and I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s what I want to do.’”
Last season, the 20-year-old got plenty of opportunities to showcase his skills.
In April, he was part of a Les Glaciers squad that finished third in Division 2 at the CWBL Nationals in Montreal. Then in June, Tamoki and Team Quebec finished second at the Junior National Championship in Charlottetown, P.E.I.
In September, Tamoki suited up with Team Canda at the IWBF Men’s Under-23 World Championship in Phuket, Thailand.
The competitions provided Tamoki with an opportunity to assess where his game was.
“That was incredible. It made me realize how much I love to compete and how far I am from what I want to be,” he said. “I want to be way better and to have more of an impact on the sport on the court. The competitions made me realize how much harder I have to work to get where I want to go.”
The highlight of the 2022 season for Tamoki was the Junior Nationals – a test event for the upcoming Canada Games.
“We were able to see how far we’ve come as a team. We all know each other because we play against each other all year long,” Tamoki explained. “At camps, we compete against each other, so we didn’t know how we would do against other teams. But we played well; we executed our strategies very well.”
Off the court, Tamoki is currently in CEGEP, where he is studying cinema. He has aspirations of earning a scholarship to play wheelchair basketball and pursue his off-court passion in cinema.