The Rolling Thunder are hoping to make a little noise in the nickel city.

Perhaps not the deafening boom of a mid-summer evening’s storm, the crash of sound that will shake the very foundation of homes in Sudbury.

But enough noise to increase the size of their current nine-athlete contingent who have been practicing weekly for a little less than a year now on Sunday afternoons at the Sudbury YMCA – and maybe welcome a few extra volunteers to the fold while they’re at it.

A 56 year-old mainstay of the local basketball community, Greg Sandblom jumped into the coaching ranks through a friendship developed with Kate Barber, having worked with her son Daniel during his time with the Sudbury Jam. Moreover, the former Laurentian Voyageur was aware of the Barber family connection (David) to para sports.

It took a little time to get the wheels in motion – literally – and a whole lot of help from Angela Gray (Independent Living Sudbury and Manitoulin) in securing the funding to purchase the wheelchairs equipped to tackle this sport, but Sandblom is now fully invested; and hoping more folks will feel the same.

“We’re open to anybody coming out, of all skills,” he said. “Whether you have experience in para sports before is not a factor. Even someone supporting a disabled person can come out and play. We’re just getting up to speed, making sure everyone is having fun.”

Sure, there are some who have quickly developed a proficiency – but far more have not.

Well over a decade ago, Amy Adair attended an Easter Seals Camp where she was first introduced to the sport. “But I was never, until this year, part of an actual team,” said the 29 year old who tackles cerebral palsy in stride, mixing in boccia practices with two-time Paralympian Lance Cryderman on the side.

“The stretches that we use for boccia are the same, or relatively the same stretches that we use for wheelchair basketball,” Adair added.

Onlookers at the “Y” will swing by, often times surprised by the fact that the baskets are not lowered from their standard ten foot height to compensate for the greater arc needed to fire the ball from a seated position. That said, the beauty of simply coming out to give it a try is that adaptations are standard.

“My target when I try and shoot for the basket is the actual mesh of the basket,” explained Adair. “The mesh is my scoring zone.”

The environment is rife with perpetual learning, for participants and coaches alike.

“Fundamentally, you’re still trying to put the ball in the basket – but there are big differences,” noted Sandblom. “The rule differences are easy to understand but the strategy takes time. That said, I think it’s still helpful to bring the coaching experience over from able-bodied basketball to wheelchair basketball.”

“We’re learning strategy as we go,” stated Adair with a smile. “Basically, our strategy is: if you’re not open, get open. And your eyes don’t leave that basketball. You have to know where that ball is from the moment you get on the court until you get off the court.”

Then, of course, you have the chairs.

“The sports chairs are very, very different from an everyday chair,” suggested Adair. “You can spin this on a dime. The dime is obviously bigger because the chair is bigger, but it can do a complete circle in a second if you want.”

“These things can really move,” coach Sandblom chimed in. “A lot of the skills that we would work on would be similar to say able bodied footwork in basketball. A lot of it is the chair work.”

With every practice, Amy Adair is a little bit more comfortable working her way around the court, finding the seam, the sweet spot from which she can stop and pop. “If I am rolling either really close to the basket or somewhere inside the key, I have a much better shot at getting a basket.”

And when all is said and done, teamwork is key, whether it be on the field of play or from an organizational perspective. “Just getting the wheelchairs here from Independent Living is a key challenge and our volunteers have been here, come rain or shine or snow, hauling them back and forth,” said Sandblom.

“It’s such a great experience.”

One in which he is hopeful others will partake – once they hear the roar of the Rolling Thunder.