Alison Mosely PLY

Alison Mosely attended Swanfels State School, Yangan State School, Ipswich Girls Grammar School and Scots PGC in Warwick where she first tasted athletic success, representing Darling Downs in high jump, long jump and triple jump at the Queensland track and field championships.

It took a car accident in 1991 to transition Alison from the track and field arena to the basketball court. Part of Alison’s initial rehabilitation was with the Sporting Wheelies and Disabled Association, which introduced people with a disability to a range of different sports. As Alison put it: I was introduced to the sport of basketball and it felt so natural [I said]: Where have you been hiding all my life?

Alison’s athleticism drove her to the top of her sport and to playing 114 games with the Australian Gliders. In 1996 she was a member of the fourth placed Gliders in Atlanta, the first of her three Paralympic Games. The Gliders were silver medallists at the 2000 Sydney Paralympics and at the 2004 Athens Paralympics.

At Athens, Alison was leading female Australian scorer and second highest female scorer across all teams with 107 points. With a field goal success rate of 47.1% she also had the highest female Australian field goal percentage and the second across all teams.

The International Wheelchair Basketball Federation World Championships, regarded as the pinnacle event for the sport, are held every four years. Alison was a member of the bronze medal winning Gliders in Sydney in 1998 and in Kitakyushu in 2002. In what was to be her last major international event, the 2006 World Championships in Amsterdam, co-captain Alison’s scoring and rebounding were a major factor in the Gliders’ fourth place successes.

Alison was a trailblazer in Australia’s fledgling women’s domestic wheelchair basketball. There being limited women’s competition, between 1995 and 1999 she was one of the leading scorers in the Men’s National Wheelchair Basketball League. In 2000, because there was no Queensland team, she joined the North Sydney Bears in the newly formed Women’s National Wheelchair Basketball League. The Bears were league champions in 2001.

Alison was captain of the Queensland team in the Women’s National Wheelchair Basketball League between 2002 and 2006, consistently earning All-Star selection and top points scorer recognition.

Alison Mosely is a strong and consistent advocate for the welfare and well-being of the members of the community. For more than 30 years her hands-on advocacy has included volunteering as disability advisory committee secretary with Queensland School Sport; as a participant in the Paralympics Australia mentoring program; as vice president of the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation-Oceania; as a member of the national selection committee with Special Olympics Australia and as a board member and athletes’ representative with the Queensland Paralympic Committee.

More than 30 years after asking that question, Where have you been hiding all my life? Alison’s basketball excellence has included being a member of the Gliders at three Paralympic Games and three World Championships; winning a premiership in the Australian Women’s National Wheelchair Basketball League; developing opportunities to increase participation in 3X3 wheelchair basketball in Queensland; and coaching from beginners through to the Australian championships and Commonwealth Games silver and gold medals.

Alison Mosely PLY is a most worthy inductee in the Queensland Basketball Hall of Fame in the Class of 2025.