He's suave, smart, and he's sculpted. We noticed that when he changed into his Polish football shirt for the photo shoot. Lean, toned, fit.

And a Polish shirt because his surname is Lipinski – about as Polish as it gets. Apart from Robert Lewandowski, the star striker and Poland's favourite son at football's World Cup – who Toby Lipinski is following and yelling for.

'I should be wearing a NZ football shirt,” says Toby, the fiercely patriotic 19-year-old from Pyes Pa. Well, New Zealand isn't there. So you are forgiven.

And if it's not Poland, or New Zealand, it's Kevin De Bruyne and Manchester City in the EPL, or PlayStation football. 'It's football, football, football,” says mum Debbie Lipinski.

But what sets this young man apart, besides the long curly locks and being a straight-A accountancy student at Waikato University, is the wheelchair – a sporty, flame orange bit of gear that cost as much as a new car.

'People that don't know me think I am a dumb-arse simply because I am disabled.” He lives with cerebral palsy. 'But I like to think I am somewhat normal.” Don't forget the straight As.

Out in the drive at his Pye's Pa home, Toby has transferred to a low-slung, even sportier, special-purpose chair. He's doing wheelies, spinning on a sixpence and catapulting an over-sized 33cm football down the drive. For a guy with limited mobility, he can make this machine sing. He just needs a few like-minded people to make a game of it. And the game is powerchair football.

It's played on a normal indoor basketball court by two squads of eight players, four on court for each team, unlimited rolling substitutes and two 20-minute halves. Players use a foot guard to ‘kick' and block the ball.

'It's a good workout,” says Debbie. 'You work up a sweat.”

There's a speed limit of 10km/hr forwards and backwards, and to keep the game flowing only one player from each team is allowed within three metres of the ball. The games makes heavy demands on the player's chair control skills, including speed, acceleration and precision operation. It is technically difficult.

'Powerchair football would be very liberating for a lot of our highly-impaired people who can't handle a manual wheelchair,” says John Sligo, sport development officer for Parafed Bay of Plenty. 'It's a way of playing a dynamic sport without having a lot of bodily function.”

In the UK, powerchair football is the fastest growing disability sport in a country where it's also the only active team participation sport for people who have to, or prefer to, use electric wheelchairs.

Here in Tauranga there are just three regular players. 'But we know there are many, many more people who could be playing and enjoying,” says Murray Lipinski, Toby's dad. He played football for Tauranga City and was also a referee. Now he coaches powerchair football. 'I'm looking for about eight players to make powerchair football work in Tauranga.”

If they don't get the buy-in, Toby and his Dad can head to Hamilton for their powerchair football fix. John suggests people just haven't heard about the powerchair football phenomenon, it just doesn't have a profile yet. Perhaps it starts here.

Contact John at Parafed on 0277272333 or message him at: john@parafedbop.co.nz