2025 has been busy for Ebony Stevenson. Somewhere in the chaos of schoolwork, daily training sessions, a 3x3 World Championship campaign, embarking on a She Hoops Leadership and Confidence Scholarship, gearing up for an Asia–Oceania Championship and Commonwealth Games Qualifier held under one roof, Ebony learned she had been named the 2025 Western Australian Institute of Sport (WAIS) Young Athlete of the Year.
It’s an award that spans every program and sporting code across the WAIS’ books - not bad for a 15-year-old who only sat in a basketball chair just a few years ago.
“It’s cool because it’s not a para-specific award, it’s just ‘young athlete’,” Stevenson said.
“It feels like wheelchair basketball is finally being recognised. And it means a lot for my parents to see all the time, effort and resources going into me and my chosen sport is actually paying off.”
Her father, Nathan, who made the trip to Bangkok to watch her play at the 3x3 Commonwealth Games qualifier and Asia-Oceania Championships, called it exactly what it was: a proud and hopeful moment.
“It’s great recognition of the effort she’s put in, and the work her coaches and WAIS staff have invested in her,” he said.
“I hope this is just the start of the journey.”
For Ebony, that journey really began in 2018. She was eight years old and out for breakfast with her family, when life as she knew it was about to change.
“It was like someone was trying to rip and burn my legs off at the same time,” she recalled.
Doctors later confirmed she had suffered a spinal stroke, leaving her paralysed from the waist down. Recovery meant hospitals, rehab and learning a new way to move through the world. It also meant meeting Paralympian and wheelchair basketballer Natalie Alexander at Perth Children’s Hospital, who handed over a pamphlet for a para-sport “come and try” night.
“I’d never sat in a basketball chair before then, but when I did, the feeling was unexplainable,” Ebony said.
“It honestly felt electric. When I used to run, I could go so fast, and suddenly I could do that again – just in a chair.”
From there, her progression was rapid. She began training at WAIS and earned a scholarship by the end of the year. Within nine months she had gone from junior state programs to National League, then the Under-25 Devils, and into the Gliders squad.
“Age doesn’t really come into it when we’re on court,” she said.
“We’re all trying to achieve the same goal. It’s just a number and it doesn’t define what you can or can’t do.”
But numbers aside, there’s one thing impossible to ignore: Ebony’s voice. You’ll hear her before you see her.
“There’s a story behind that,” she laughed.
“At one of our training camps, Craig (Campbell) said everyone should try to be as loud as Laura Davoli under the basket, and for some reason, that really fired me up. I was like, ‘I want to be the benchmark.’”
She took it personally – in the best way. Bit by bit, she leaned into that role, directing traffic, talking early and often, and learning how to hold a room that often includes some of the biggest names in wheelchair basketball.
“I realised that if I can talk in front of someone like Frank Pinder, I can talk in front of anyone,” she said.
“If he’ll listen to me, everyone else will, although, maybe not Bill Latham,” she laughed.
Where Ebony’s voice arrives before she does, Bill Latham prefers the quieter approach, a contrast Ebony finds amusing more than anything.
“I want him on my podcast,” she grinned.
That competitive streak runs underneath everything. Ebony will tell you she wants to be the type of player who can join the men’s sessions and have nobody take pity on her.
“I want to be dominant, and I want to be a threat,” she said.
“That’s the goal. I want to be able to keep up with anyone and just let my basketball speak for itself.”
Along the way she has sought out mentors wherever she can, soaking up every piece of advice like a sponge, and those conversations have since become the early threads of a podcast she is building around para-sport stories and visibility.
“The idea is to help close the gap between Olympic and Paralympic viewership,” she said.
“I’ve already interviewed Brad Ness, Tristan Knowles, Shaun Norris and Jake Kavanagh. I want to get it properly off the ground before I start Year 11, so that it’s sustainable once school ramps up.”
For now, though, the WAIS Young Athlete of the Year honour gives her a chance to pause and recognise just how far she’s come since that first “electric” push in a basketball chair.
“At the end of the day, I just want to keep getting better,” she said.
“This award is a really nice reminder that the work is paying off, but it also gives me the drive to want to go out and do more.”
