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Ottawa-based Canadian goalball team shoots for podium
Updated On: August 14, 2012
Jillian MacSween (left) and Cassandra Orgeles are two of four goalball players who have moved to Ottawa in recent years to train with the Canadian women's national team. Photo: Dan Plouffe
For the first time ever, the six national team players have been able to centralize, in Ottawa, in the lead-up to a Paralympic Games. They’ve now got a full-time coach to watch over them as well, and they have guaranteed gym time each morning at Algonquin College.
“This is making a big difference in terms of their skills, their teamwork and their communication,” notes coach Janice Dawson. “I mean, they’re playing goalball five times a week. If we were doing what we did before, they’d be at home having maybe two practices a week with their teammates from provincial programming, and the provincial programs don’t even really run in the summer.”
The proof of the value of centralization comes in the team’s recent podium performances at tournaments in Sweden and Alabama. The winners of last year’s International Blind Sport Association worlds, and fourth-place finishers at the goalball world championships the year before, Canada will be a strong contender to win hardware in London.
On top of welcoming Nancy Morin and Ashlie Andrews to the loop earlier this year when centralization began, four national team members had already moved to Ottawa at various points before that.
“If you want to play goalball, Ottawa is the place to be,” explains 22-year-old Jillian MacSween, who came to Ottawa as soon as she finished high school. “I wanted to play with better players, and that’s where they were.”
If Ottawa is the central training ground, then Brampton can take credit for being the factory. Many players have come from the W. Ross MacDonald School for the visually-impaired.
Cassandra Orgeles, who moved to Ottawa a year ago, is the latest in the line that included MacSween and Whitney Bogart before her.
“Whitney was a big role model for me. You could always hear her name on the PA,” Orgeles recalls. “It’s surreal in a way to be playing with them now. I never thought I’d be playing at this level when I was younger.”
“We’re all within a two-block radius,” Amy Kneebone smiles. “We eat, sleep and breathe each other.”
The only thing everyone shares is a clear objective of what they’re out to achieve in London.
“Representing Canada at the Paralympics is a huge honour,” Kneebone adds. “If we can bring home a medal for Canada, that’d be unbelievable.”
SEPT. 1 – CAN VS SWE, 8:45 A.M. ET
By Dan Plouffe
There may not be athletes more thankful for the support of Own The Podium than the Canadian women’s goalball team.
For the first time ever, the six national team players have been able to centralize, in Ottawa, in the lead-up to a Paralympic Games. They’ve now got a full-time coach to watch over them as well, and they have guaranteed gym time each morning at Algonquin College.
“This is making a big difference in terms of their skills, their teamwork and their communication,” notes coach Janice Dawson. “I mean, they’re playing goalball five times a week. If we were doing what we did before, they’d be at home having maybe two practices a week with their teammates from provincial programming, and the provincial programs don’t even really run in the summer.”
The proof of the value of centralization comes in the team’s recent podium performances at tournaments in Sweden and Alabama. The winners of last year’s International Blind Sport Association worlds, and fourth-place finishers at the goalball world championships the year before, Canada will be a strong contender to win hardware in London.
On top of welcoming Nancy Morin and Ashlie Andrews to the loop earlier this year when centralization began, four national team members had already moved to Ottawa at various points before that.
“If you want to play goalball, Ottawa is the place to be,” explains 22-year-old Jillian MacSween, who came to Ottawa as soon as she finished high school. “I wanted to play with better players, and that’s where they were.”
If Ottawa is the central training ground, then Brampton can take credit for being the factory. Many players have come from the W. Ross MacDonald School for the visually-impaired.
Cassandra Orgeles, who moved to Ottawa a year ago, is the latest in the line that included MacSween and Whitney Bogart before her.
“Whitney was a big role model for me. You could always hear her name on the PA,” Orgeles recalls. “It’s surreal in a way to be playing with them now. I never thought I’d be playing at this level when I was younger.”
A close team, literally
On top of their training, the athletes spend plenty more time together since five of the six live in the same apartment building at Fisher and Meadowlands, while the last is barely much farther.
“We’re all within a two-block radius,” Amy Kneebone smiles. “We eat, sleep and breathe each other.”
The only thing everyone shares is a clear objective of what they’re out to achieve in London.
“Representing Canada at the Paralympics is a huge honour,” Kneebone adds. “If we can bring home a medal for Canada, that’d be unbelievable.”
Athletes
Name: Cassandra Orgeles
Age: 22
Hometown: Honolulu, HI
Previous Paralympics: None
Name: Jillian MacSween
Age: 26
Hometown: Halifax, NS
Previous Paralympics: None
Name: Whitney Bogart
Age: 26
Hometown: Marathon, ON
Previous Paralympics: None
Name: Amy Kneebone
Age: 22
Hometown: Charlottetown, PEI
Previous Paralympics: 2008 – finished 5th
COMPETITION SKED
SEPT. 1 – CAN VS SWE, 8:45 A.M. ET
SEPT. 2 – CAN VS AUS, 5:15 A.M. ET
SEPT. 3 – CAN VS JAP, 4:45 P.M. ET
SEPT. 4 – CAN VS USA, 8:45 A.M. ET
SEPT. 5 – QUARTER-FINALS
SEPT. 6 – SEMI-FINALS
SEPT. 7 – MEDAL ROUND
About Goalball
Played in a gymnasium by athletes with visual impairments using a ball with bells inside, each team has three players on the court at a time. The aim is to score by rolling the ball at speed into the opposition’s goal, while the opposition attempts to block the ball with their bodies.
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