David Cantoni won't mean much to you but in Western Australia he is the state's Paralympic Football coach and he has named a medal, annually awarded to the most outstanding State footballer with a disability.
Chris Barty, a former wheelchair basketball player, with cerebral palsy, turned to soccer in 2011 and plays in goal for Joodana Blues and the State. He held the medal after leading his Paralympic team to its first national championships in 2012 and was named goalkeeper of the tournament. He made his international debut in April 2012 in the AFC Dream Asia Celebral Palsy tournament in Abu Dhabi.
The national team was founded in 1998 and competed in the 2000 Paralympics. They also take part in the CPISRA Intercontinental Cup and go by the name of Pararoos!
Not yet at this high standard is Brent Dingle, a mild sufferer of cerebral palsy, who would like to compete at the higher level. Living in Ayr, Queensland, his parents fly him to Brisbane every few weeks to play football with other disabled footballers in the city's Paralympic Football Programme. The grade 4 pupil, who attends a local primary school, clearly gains much from this interaction, so his parents are running a scheme to bring more disabled youngsters together locally and of course they have to pay for his regular flights to Brisbane.
Local organisations have got together to hold a "fitness boot camp" over the recent weekend and they raised $900 to fund a programme for the Ayr disabled footballers.
Meanwhile, the British Paralympic Football team is preparing itself for the Rio Paralympics having come fifth in their qualifying tournament, the World Championships, in 2015.
There have been other blogs on disability football which you can access by using the search box.
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