The Jamaica Paralympic Association (JPA) has, for the first time in its 43-year history, launched an islandwide search for outstanding physically challenged persons between the ages of 18 and 30 to try out for the national wheelchair basketball team.

The search is set to begin in St James today at the Montego Bay Cricket Club at 11 a.m., while tomorrow, the JPA team is expected to be at the Church of the Nazarene, Mandeville, at 11 a.m. The series will end on Friday, March 27, at the Basketball Courts at the National Stadium, St Andrew, beginning 4 p.m.

All other potential athletes who are interested in other sports have also been invited. Those selected during the tryouts will join the national team which will compete for the first time in the Americas Wheelchair Basketball Champions Cup from August 23-30, 2009, in Vancouver, Canada, with the hope of qualifying for the Gold Cup World Wheelchair Basketball Championships in Birmingham in 2010.

The team had qualified for the Americas Cup after placing second for the first time at the Central American and Caribbean Wheel-chair Basketball Championship in El Salvador in November last year.

The JPA, established in 1966, is the national body for sports for persons with a disability and is currently based at the Sir John Golding Rehabilitation Centre in Mona, Kingston 7.

The association is managed by a board of directors, chaired by Major General Robert Neish and a team of volunteer administrators - the latter group led by secretary general, Suzanne Harris-Henry.