Ottawa Sportspage

They were a single team that gave birth to the club whose name is now known in the nation’s capital and across North America for bringing a professional approach to an amateur game.

Thirteen years they’d waited. Three previous trips to the champi-

onship game, but no titles. The chance to win the long-awaited

crown on the Algonquin College home field where they’d dominated for sev-eral years.

And then a classic final that could have inspired Stompin’ Tom to do a remake called “The Good Ol’ Soccer Game.”

The home team trailed behind after a Pali Blues marker under two minutes in, but on the last play of the game (in the last game of the playoffs too), the

Fury stormed the crease like bumble-bees with Ashley Seal putting home the rebound off a free-kick to force extra time.

But do it one better, Tom, why don’t ya? How about decid-ing it all in a shootout? Done.

And then one more. Inject goal-keeper Jas-mine Phillips into the role of hometown hero. Have the kids she coaches chant her name from the stands. And then as she lives what are likely the last moments of her W-League career, have

her masterfully stop two penalties, set the stage for Kelly Conheeney to blast home the winning kick in a 4-3 con-test, and make Ottawa soccer history.

“I couldn’t have written a better script, could I?” smiles Ottawa Fury owner John Pugh. “Somehow, we kind of have to do it the hard way. We were two minutes away from elimin-ation and we didn’t give up. We got the equalizing goal, and then penalty kicks. It was our day.

“This time it was our turn. And we’re very grateful to take our turn.”

Defender Kathryn Williamson was named playoff MVP, but there was no doubt who the fan favourite was – the goalkeeper who’d established a new franchise record for shutouts earlier this season. After Ottawa’s 1-0 semi-final victory, the Fury U14 boys swarmed Phillips in celebration, and countless youngsters hugged and clung to the talented keeper who also doubles as their favourite coach.

“Jas has such an infectious person-ality. There’s not a person on this team or in this club that doesn’t love Jas-mine,” says Fury coach Dom Oliveri, who often leaned on the team’s captain

for input like an assistant coach. “She’s a great coach, with a great future in this game.”

Celebrating a title together was exceptionally special for the pair of products from the club’s youth system. Oliveri has known Phillips since she was 13.

“Jasmine’s worked so hard for this for a number of years, she’s been so close a number of times, and now it’s happened for her,” Oliveri highlights. “I’m hoping she decides to come back and play next year, but this might be her last game.

“What a way to finish for her.”

Final puzzle piece – adversity

The Fury have had many talented teams in the past – five former play-ers are currently playing for Canada at the Olympics – but never before a gold medal winner. Oliveri says there was something a bit different with this year’s squad compared to others, in-cluding last year’s when they enjoyed an undefeated run all the way until the final when they fell 5-1.

Heartbeatthe Heartbeat of Ottawa sports sportsOttawa.comvol. 11 august 2012

Ottawa Olympians Onstage

HOmecOming FOr FOrmer cOlt

p. 16

p. 2

p. 11

Your guide to the nation capital’s involve-ment in the Aug. 29-Sept. 9 London Para-lympic Games begins on our back cover.

Courtnay Pilypaitis helped Canada through to the playoff round in women’s basketball. More local updates inside.

Ashbury College grad Julianne Zussman will get the chance to shine at the Rugby World Cup 7s qualifier in Ottawa.

ChampsLed by Ottawa nat-ive Jasmine Phillips in goal, the Ottawa Fury write the storybook fin-ish to their W-League championship quest

By Dan Plouffe

NACRA RUGBY WORLD CUP 7s 2013 QUALIFIERNACRA RUGBY WORLD CUP 7s 2013 QUALIFIERNACRA RUGBY WORLD CUP 7s 2013 QUALIFIERNACRA RUGBY WORLD CUP 7s 2013 QUALIFIERNACRA RUGBY WORLD CUP 7s 2013 QUALIFIERNACRA RUGBY WORLD CUP 7s 2013 QUALIFIERNACRA RUGBY WORLD CUP 7s 2013 QUALIFIERNACRA RUGBY WORLD CUP 7s 2013 QUALIFIERAUGUST 25-26, 2012 TWIN ELM RUGBY PARK OTTAWAAUGUST 25-26, 2012 TWIN ELM RUGBY PARK OTTAWA****

http://events.rugbycanada.ca

at last!

Backed by the young play-ers she coaches chanting “Jasmine! Jasmine!”, Fury keeper Jasmine Phillips stopped two penalties in the deciding shootout to give Ottawa its first-ever W-League title on home field.

CHAMPS continued on p.6

Hometown hero

OTTAWA PARALYMPICS

at the

Courtnay Pilypaitis picked up right where she left off. The Ottawa native was team MVP in Canada’s last-chance Olympic qualification tournament, and the 24-year-old guard continued to make a real name for her-self internationally in helping Canada reach the playoff round in London.

“To represent your country is a great honour, but to exceed expecta-tions and get into the top-8 is huge for

Canada Basketball,” Pilypaitis said in a Canadian Olympic Committee media release.

Nine points was Canada’s worst margin of defeat – against world #2 Australia in the preliminary round – after their berth the playoff round was already secure. The team’s key victory was a 79-73 upset over Brazil when Pilypaitis tied for a team-high 14 points with veteran Kim Smith.

The Canadians, who beat the host Brits handily, also came close to knocking off favoured Rus-sia and France, which could have helped their seeding leading into a quarter-final matchup with world #1 USA.

back injury sidelines rOwer

Hampered by a recent back in-jury, Cristy Nurse of the Ottawa

Rowing Club watched on as an alternate while the Canadian wo-men’s eight won a silver medal. Morgan Jarvis, also of ORC, fin-ished second in the ‘C’ final for 14th place overall in the men’s lightweight double sculls.

M i d w a y through the Games, Mo Zhang could lay claim to the second-best result by an Ott-awa athlete. The 23-year-old made it through her first two matches in the

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Kanata Rhythmic GYMNASTICS CLUB

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An Olympic sport for girls, rhythmic gymnastics develops fi tness, fl exibility and coordination in an active atmosphere, using gymnastics, balls, ropes, ribbons, hoops and dance.

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ELITEPilypaitis pushes Canada to playoffs

photo: jason ranson/coc

Courtnay Pilypaitis has had plenty to write home about from the Ath-letes Village. The Ottawa native helped her Canadian women’s basketball team reach the playoff round in London.

Keeping the rhythm

On the heels of a distingued 2011-2012 season, the Kanata Ryhthmic Gymnastics Club is ready to continue building its successful history this fall.

See Sports Ottawa.com for more.

women’s singles table tennis event before getting stopped by an Austrian competitor in the round of 64. Zhang

topped Qatar 4-0 and Turney 4-3.Olympic rookie Pierre-Luc Hinse

lost 4-3 in his first match against a Latvian, while Andre Ho fell 4-1 to a Nigerian.

Ho, Hinse and Eugene Wang were swept out by Japan in the first round of the men’s team event.

For the second Olympics in a row, Sherraine Schalm of the Ottawa Fen-cing Club and judoka Nicolas Tritton, formerly of Takahaski Dojo, experi-enced similar fates at the Games. Each fell to opponents ranked higher than them in their first bouts.

Schalm, ranked 26th in women’s epee, fell to the world’s 12th-ranked athlete, while Tritton fell to world #6 in the men’s 73 kg division.

West Ottawa Soccer ScoopNew dome, new home coming in time for WOSC winter development

It might seem strange to look forward to winter when the sum-mertime sun is still shining, but for West Ottawa Soccer, the fall and winter will

mean an exciting new addition. A second soccer dome is set to open at the club’s Thunderbird Sports Centre home.

A year-and-a-half ago, the recently-formed West Ottawa Soccer Club was thrown a ma-jor hurdle when the Thunderbird facility went up in flames.

But much like the club itself, Thunderbird will emerge stronger.

There will be a new soccer dome with a field larger than the one that used to be in-side the building, while the dome that sur-vived the fire will also get new turf.

“What we’re looking forward to most is having more of a club atmosphere where everybody’s meeting and coming to the same place,” highlights WOSC Manager, Finance and Administration Vicki Lowe. “And we’re really looking forward to having all our development and league programs in the one location.”

The club’s offices will move back to Richardson Side Road and the facility’s opening will mean less travel time for

families. It will make it easier for players and coaches to see more of each other with the domes side-by-side. And leagues will likely be able to expand, especially for adults who will now have a larger surface to play on.

“We’re a soccer club that tries to focus on youth development. We have programs for the recreational players right through to the highest level of competitive,” Lowe adds. “For those kids that play house league soc-cer but still want to learn a little bit, just not at high intensity, we’ve got those programs.

“And then we’ve also got the very highest level of soccer, with the best coaches around.”

While players can strive to be their best by training at top-notch facilities with WOSC, younger players can continue to build their love for the game a bit closer to home at gymnasiums during the winter.

“We want to take our program out to the community where they can just go a few blocks sometimes,” Lowe notes.

‘Envy of clubs in canada’As the second largest soccer club in the

country, WOSC is in a unique position to be able to lease the Thunderbird facility from TMSI Sports Management as its anchor tenant. That means WOSC can book field time when it wants and when it works best for everyone.

“I think they’re the envy of all soccer clubs in Canada to have their own facility that they can call home. It’s definitely the way of the future,” says TMSI President Darin McCor-riston, saluting WOSC’s “forward-thinking and strategic” board of directors. “This is more of a partnership versus a landlord/tenant agreement. We’ve been very proud to have partnered with West Ottawa Soccer. It’s probably the best partnership, and tenant, I’ve had in 25 years.”

Construction is going very well on the new dome, notes McCorriston, who is cautiously optimistic it will open in early October.

Registration opens in mid-August for WOSC’s winter programming, which begins on Oct. 13.

Visit wosc.com or call 613-831-1135 for more information.

There’s no margin for error for Ottawa native Julianne Zuss-man and the Canadian women’s rugby sevens squad as they enter the NACRA regional qualifier Aug. 25-26 at Twin Elm Rugby Park, but the required must-win scenario to move onto the Rugby Sevens World Cup is not something that’s about to intim-idate the members of one of the world’s top squads.

“Our goal is to go out and win and to qualify for that spot at the World Cup,” Zussman states simply. “Our program’s in a great spot. For the last year or so we’ve been improving and moving forward, which is really exciting.”

Rugby and school have brought Zussman to many places since her days at Ashbury College, where coach Jen Boyd plucked her away from soccer and started her on the quest she hopes will one day land her in the Olympic Games.

7s game suits zussman

First, it was McGill, where she played for the Martlets and completed her BA. She spent some time with the regular 15s national team, but didn’t receive much playing time with them.

This was before she dis-covered the sevens game – which suited her skill-set per-fectly since she was more of an all-around player rather than someone who fits the more defined positions of 15-a-side games.

“You can’t hide in sevens,” notes the 25-year-old. “Every player has to be strong and fast

and fit. You have to be able to play all roles. You have to be able to ruck, tackle and pass, make good decisions, kick – there’s an endless number of skills you can improve as a player. It makes it really fun to be a part of.”

FrOm alps tO rOckies

But before getting her sport career back on track, Zussman elected to put the focus back on her education for a bit, attend-ing the International Academy of Sports Science and Techno-logy in Lausanne, Switzerland to complete a Masters degree in sports management.

That suited her perfectly when she moved back to join the national squad in Langford, B.C. since she was able to pick up work at the Canadian Sport Centre Pacific while training for rugby. It’s a long way from home, but the west coast is treat-ing Zussman great.

“I love it,” she says. “I al-ways thought B.C. was a beau-tiful part of Canada, and there’s definitely a culture of high-per-formance sport here too.”

The rugby team trains in the same facility as high-per-formance swimmers, triathletes, divers, and rowers.

Olympic dream FOr 2016

She’s seen many head off to the London Olympics, and she’d like to follow them next time to Rio de Janeiro when rugby sev-ens will make its Olympic debut in 2016.

“I think about it every day,” Zussman says. “It’s a really ex-citing opportunity that I never thought I would have when I started playing rugby. It wasn’t

an Olympic sport then, but now that it’s there, it’s definitely part of my goals.”

But first she’ll get to have another dream come true as she gets to play for Team Canada on her home pitch in Richmond.

“Hopefully we’re going to get a ton of people out,” says the former Ottawa Irish club player. “I am definitely relying on my friends and family to make up a serious part of the cheering squad.”

The Canadians built confid-ence from a tough tournament earlier this season in the Neth-erlands, where four of the 12 games were won or lost on the last play of the game – an indic-ation of the wildness possible in the sevens game.

The Canadian women won the last NACRA sevens com-petition with a 38-0 victory over Jamaica last year.

The Canadian men’s sevens will also be in action at the same event as they vie for one of two qualifying spots in their Sevens World Cup.

For Zussman, it was great news to hear that the team’s lone domestic fixture of the season would be in her hometown.

“Oh my God, I was stoked,” she recalls. “It’s the visual for me. Getting to play around the world in these stadiums and see-ing all the crowds and hearing all the fans.

“I sort of implanted that at Twin Elm and I can’t even ima-gine how exciting that would be to be at the field where I played growing up and just see people dressed in red and white cheer-ing on our national team in the nation’s capital.”

Get off the sidelines with city Wide sportsActive living is easier than you think and City Wide Sports can help you move from bystander to player! Whether you want to learn a new sport or brush up on your skills, our trained staff can enhance the experience by supporting your goals.

City of Ottawa offers skill development programs as well as drop-ins and leagues through the City Wide Sports section. Whether it’s playing tennis indoors, learning to ride your bike, brushing up on your skating skills, or putting in a basketball team, it’s all happening in safe, nurturing, and fun environments.

Looking for a unique birthday party idea or something different to do at your neighbourhood block party? Try Sports clinics!

City Wide Sports will provide great staff for your event to run fun games that teach new skills. Choose from volleyball, basketball, soccer, ball hockey, OmniKin®, touch football, ultimate, skipping, obstacle courses, and more! Your friends won’t realize how much they learn, because they are having way too much fun!

Get your questions answered by our courteous and friendly office staff who can give you extra information about programs plus help you re-gister. Visit our websites ottawa.ca/sports or citywidesportsottawa.ca or call us at 613-580-2854.

Jump into sport with us this fall! Our motto is Nobody on the sidelines!

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BadmintonBasketballCross-Country SkiingCurling

ottawa.ca/recreation

ELITEOttawa player ‘stoked’ for NACRA

By Dan Plouffe

photo: ian moor

It’s been years since Canadian national team member Julianne Zussman has played a rugby game in her hometown, but she’ll get that chance when the NACRA Rugby World Cup 7s Quali-fier comes to Twin Elm Rugby Park Aug. 25-26.

Call it the Clara Hughes model. Similar to the Canadian summer and winter Olympic legend, competitive speed skater Vincent De Haitre of Cumberland has shifted gears to focus on track cycling in order to prepare for the world junior championships, starting Aug. 27 in New Zealand.

A former Ontario Cup speed skating circuit champion with the Gloucester Concordes, De Haitre is somewhat of a rookie when it comes to track cycling.

“I was looking to build my en-durance, in order to be able to finish skating races stronger,” explains the 17-year-old.

The Ottawa Bicycle Club ath-lete’s success evolved, bringing him most recently to the Pan American ju-nior championships where he placed fourth in both the sprint and the kilo race in personal best times of 10:74 and 1:04:8 respectively. Going to the junior worlds is a career highlight.

“I am quite a bit excited to go,” De Haitre says. “It would be an honour to represent.”

Presently, De Haitre’s dream of

competing is in question after a cyc-ling accident that broke his collarbone.

“My spot on the na-tional team is a guarantee but whether I go or not is more about how I feel going in,” he h igh l igh t s . “If I can hold my handle bars and hold my bike, I will go.”

De Haitre has qualified to compete in the keirin, match sprint, and kilo events. The Béatrice- Desloges high school stu-dent gives credit to his background in speed skating for the success he’s found in track cycling.

“I prefer the events that have more of a punch to them,” notes De Haitre, who has no plans to drop either of his

sports for at least another year. “The match sprint and kilo are some of my favourite because of the standing start. I am better at the acceleration that def-initely comes from skating. Starts in skating translate well to a good start in cycling.”

Ariane Bonhomme, also of the Ottawa Bicycle Club, has her sights

set on a Cana-dian junior world championsh ips team as well.

She was re-cently named to Canada’s six-ath-lete women’s selection pool for road cycling worlds Sept. 15-23 in the Netherlands.

P a r t i c i p a -tion in the junior worlds is 100% athle te- funded. Visit vincent dehaitre.com for more information.

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COMMUNITY CLUBSCyclist/speed skater De Haitre on the right track – both of them

By Leah Larocque

photo provided

Pam Am wrestling gold first, judo next

It’s been a standout summer on the mats for Torin Macfadyen – whether that’s competing in judo for the Takahashi Dojo or in wrestling for Tsunami Academy.

Macfadyen most recently became under-17 Pan Amer-ican champion in Venezuela, and before that he repeated as 50 kg judo national champion at the same age category to earn a trip to the September Pan Am championships in that sport in Guatemala.

Excelling in two disciplines

is one challenge, although the two sports align well enough since national competitions are in different seasons – except when an athlete earns the right to compete internationally in wrest-ling during the summer.

“It’s pretty difficult, but I like maintaining my training for both,” notes Macfadyen, who spent between 1.5-2 hours train-ing for wrestling nightly in the lead-up to the Pan Ams before jumping into judo practice for another hour-and-a-half.

It proved to be the right com-bination as the St. Paul Catholic

High School student made his first trip to South America.

Macfadyen handled his first two opponents from El Sal-vador and Dominican Republic in consecutive rounds, although the gold medal final was a heart-stopper.

Scoreless in the deciding round after splitting the two first two, Macfadyen won the toss and scored a point from the clench to secure his title.

“I was so happy,” says Mac-fadyen.

By Dan Plouffe

PAN AM continued on p.5

Doc Hockey Corner“Perfect prac-

tice makes per-fect.” “When you are not practicing someone else is.” “If you put your mind to it, you can do anything.”

“Hard work will get you there.” All these common cliché phrases have

molded us to “eat, sleep, and breathe” sports. It’s no secret that practice is key to athletic success, and there’s a well-known book in sporting communities that emphasizes pre-cisely this. The Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell explores the likes of the Beatles, Bill Gates and elite athletes including professional hockey players.

World lEadErs in music, tEch, sports, all nEEd 10,000 hours

Gladwell touches on the fact that you need 10,000 hours to become an expert in a given field. In Hamburg, England, the Beatles were given the chance to play live for 8 hours a day, 7 days a week. This forced them to play different types of music and multiple genres of music. This intense practice regimen sep-arated them from other bands.

Bill Gates has a similar story. His oppor-tunity came when he was at private school and the Mothers Club donated a computer to their school. Gates was able to begin practi-cing computer programming at the ripe age of 13 for an unlimited amount of hours. As a result, he was able to become an expert in the programming field before his opportunity was available.

The Beatles were ready with their 10,000 hours when the British invasion came to the U.S. And Bill Gates, with his 10,000 hours, was ready when computers became main-stream, hence Microsoft was born.

With sports, it is easy to hear the stories of relentless hours of training desire by legends Gordie Howe and Wayne Gretzky, who were lifting weights and skating at age three on

a home backyard rink, re-s p e c t -ively.

T h e S t a a l brothers shooting

hundreds of pucks a day and Sidney Crosby shooting into a dryer for hours.

dEdication a kEy rEquirEmEntI can relate to this dedication because I

was fortunate enough to have a basement shooting area and a nearby pond to play ice hockey on. It’s a commitment for parents as well as the players.

Players lack focus and a parent’s interest in guiding and 1-on-1 help with practicing skills is very influential and motivating.

Like we said in the previous Doc Hockey column, the player must be passionate and driven to play and have the unrelenting de-sire to move to the next level. There are al-ways going to be the kids who are disciplined to practice every day and attend multiple camps and will make it to the big show.

Parents and players need to recognize and to have the patience to understand the crucial element of acquiring the 10,000 hours to be an expert when comparing the phys-ical and mental development of one player to another.

Players will blossom at different times depending on growth spurts, coaches’ influ-ence, an “aha!” moment, or natural maturity, but they must have accumulated the 10,000+ hours to fulfill the dreams of being a profes-sional. In next month’s article, I will discuss how opportunity and the 10,000 hour rule coordinate to shape our careers.

Doc Hockey Development Camp has been designed specifically for hockey players who desire to enhance their hockey skill-sets. It is scheduled for Aug. 20-24 at the Orleans Recreation Centre.

Doc Hockey has established a training pro-gram called Explosive Power. It is a custom-ized training program to develop your body to allow you to have a explosive acceleration and increase your balance and fluidity when skating.

Ten-thousand hours to become an expert --By Dr. Shayne Baylis, Doc Hockey

doc hockey

@doc_hockey

visit dochockey.ca or call 613-371-4774.

prEvEntion - pErformancE - rEcovEry

Doc Hockey/Rayvens Summer CampAug. 20-24, 8:30-4:30, Orléans Rec Centre

Competing along-side Canadian team-mates, and friends, was also a thrill.

“I’d trained so hard for it,” Macfadyen adds. “I really wanted to win that tourna-ment. It was my first Pan Ams, but I knew I could do it.”

Two athletes from the National Cap-ital Wrestling Club also competed at the Pan Ams. Augusta Eve was winless in the women’s 40 kg category, while

Magalie Rondeau won matches over El Salvador and Guatemala and lost to U.S. and Venezuelan competitors en route to the bronze medal.

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FURYNEWSFURYSPORTSPAGE SNAPSHOTS

file photo

invaders One step away FrOm appearance in nFc Final

wOrld ultimate brOnze

kemp wins canada’s First-ever juniOr wOrlds Orienteering medal

3 gOld FOr Ottawa atHletes at track juniOr natiOnals

Osu players drives east danOne team

cOps & Fire FigHters team up FOr tHe blind

cardinals 3rd, eagles 4tH at little league prOvincials

Eight Ottawa ultimate players won a bronze medal at the July 7-14

World Flying Disk Federation world championships in Japan as the Cana-dian women’s team finished third with an overall record of 10-2. Canada also claimed bronze in the open division, and won both the mixed and masters championships, while also taking second in women’s masters.

The Ottawa Invaders will have a chance to earn a place in the Northern Football Conference championship game when they host Tri City in the playoff semi-finals on Saturday, Aug. 11 at Keith Harris Stadium. Seven different players scored each of the home team’s touchdowns in the quarter-final round as the In-vaders downed the Toronto Raiders 47-14 on Saturday, Aug. 4 to reach the semis. Ottawa was 6-2 in the regular season. Tri City was 5-3.

Ottawa South United Soccer Club players got to play the heroes’ role as they sent their Eastern Canadian Danone Nations Cup team to Poland for September’s world finals with a 4-0 victory over the Western Canadian squad on July 14 in Toronto.

The Eastern squad earn a clean sheet with the help of goalkeeper Mol-lie Eriksson, while David Chung led the offensive charge by scoring the first goal and then adding the last two in the contest.

The host Carling-wood-Frank Ryan Cardinals earned a third-place finish when they hosted the Little League Ontario majors championships in July. They handled every opponent they faced except for the silver-medalist Las-alle Turtle Club, winning four matches before getting knocked out by the Turtle Club, who went on to fall to the High Park Braves in the final. The East Nepean Eagles were only one step back of the Cardinals as they were beat 9-5 by the hosts to finish fourth.

In a sport dominated by Scandanavians and other Europeans, Ottawa orienteer Emily Kemp earned a little piece of history and blasted her country onto the interna-tional radar as she became the first Canadian to claim a medal at July’s world junior orienteering championships in Slovakia.

Ottawa Lions distance runners claimed all three of the nation’s capital’s gold medals at July’s Canadian junior track-

and-field championships. Emma Galbraith won the women’s 1,500 m crown, and Yves Sikubwabo took the men’s 800 m before winning bronze behind Adam Palamar in the men’s 1,500 m.

Also landing on the podium were Divyajyoti Biswalm, Ahmed Al-Slaq, Tania Bambi and the Lions 4x400 m relay team of Isaiah Moses, Alex Hutton, Denray Jean-Jacques and Kevin Chung. Racing event fi-nals and finishing in the top-8 were Wade Embury, Alex Berhe and Kevin Nault from the Lions and Leeson Guay and Amelia Brohman of C.A.N.I.

With involvement from local police and firefighters, the first-annual Guns and Hoses 3-on-3 Ball Hockey Classic is set to go Sept. 15-16 in the Byward Market. Organized by the Canadian Council of the Blind, the event features seven-player teams, with men, women, co-ed and youth divisions. The charity event will also benefit the Sens Found-ation, the Ottawa 67’s Foundation and the Ott-awa Police and Fire Ser-vices’ benevolent funds, on top of the organizers’ group. See www.ccbn ational.net/guns-hoses for more information.

HOrnets reacH 5 Finals at HOme tOurneyThe host Hornets claimed a pair of titles and three more second-place

finishes in the first leg of the Gloucester International Soccer Tournament featuring boys’ teams July 7-8 at the Hornets Nest and Shefford Park. The Hornets Attack topped the U14 category while Hornets Black was the best in U11, Tier 2. The Hornets Impact (U10, Tier 1 & U11 Tier 1) and Hornets L3 (U16) placed second. Nepean earned three division crowns at the event, with the Strikers taking U10, Tier 1, and Gunners squads win-ning U17/18 and U16. West Ottawa (U13) and Capital United (U12, Tier 2) were also champions, while West Ottawa (Krocko – U13 & U11 Tier 2), OSU Rage (U12, Tier 2), and Ottawa Internationals (U15, Tier 1 & U12 Tier 1) were finalists. The girls’ tourney goes Aug. 11-12.

PAN AM: 3 local wrestlers represent Canadacontinued from p. 4

Torin Macfadyen

Sportspage AugustDan Plouffe

How well do you know Ottawa's 2012 Paralympics participants? Fill in their names as indicated.

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Whitney _______ 6 Wheelchair rugby player

________ 7 brother of T11 distance

runner, T11-13 4x100 runner (visually impaired) _____ __________

8 Rower ______ 11 Guide runner for Brandon King

_________ 12 Shooting national team coach

_______ 14 T37 women's runner (cerebral

palsy) __________ 16 Women's Goalball player Jillian

________ 17 Equestrian ________ 19 T11-13 4x100 runner (visually

impaired) _____ 20 Judoka ______ 21 Guide runner for Jon

Dunkerley _____ 22 Canadian Paralympic

Committee manager media relations _____

Down1 Guide runner for Jason

Dunkerley _______ 2 3-time Paralympic medalist, T11

distance runner (visually impaired) _____ __________

4 Women's Goalball player Cassandra _______

5 T54 men's wheelchair racer ____ 9 Women's Goalball player Amy

________ 10 T34 women's wheelchair racer

________ 13 Women's Goalball head coach

______ 15 T54 men's wheelchair marathon

world record holder ________ 18 Para-athletics national event

group coach ______

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902 Pinecrest Rd. Ottawa, K2B 6B3

Dan [email protected]

Larry RingDirector of Business [email protected]

The Ottawa Sportspage is printed the first Tuesday of every month by Ott-awa Sports Media, the locally-owned and operated publishers of the Ottawa Sportspage and SportsOttawa.com.



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Simply irreplaceable – Martin Cleary will never be matched in local sports news

CHAMPS: ‘Tremendous’ support from Fury fans

“They had to fight this year. It wasn’t an easy season for us. We had players in and out all season with injuries,” notes the coach of the

squad that went 12-2 overall. “When we went down early in the game, it wasn’t a big deal, we’d been down before.”

mOre lOcal cHamps

Also celebrating the championship was Ot-tawa native Gillian Baggott, who came on as a substitute late in regulation and also played the scoreless extra-time sessions. A Fury player since age 16, the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees defender played many important minutes for the North American champions this year.

“It was nerve-racking to watch and be a part of,” Baggott recounts. “It was a once in a lifetime kind of thing to have the final four in Ottawa. It was awesome.”

It isn’t just youth who draw inspiration from the local hero of the day, she notes.

“Jasmine is an awesome person on and off the field – so reliable,” Baggott says. “She led us the way here, and I’m so thankful to have someone like that on my team.”

For her part, Phillips was thrilled by the backing she received from the hometown crowd, which naturally included many Fury jerseys, although young players with T-shirts from just about every local club also filled the stands for what Pugh called a “tremendous” weekend overall.

“The support we had was amazing. It was amazing all weekend and it’s been amazing all season,” emphasizes Phillips, who will start teacher’s college at the University of Ottawa this fall. “And we just won our first national championship in 13 years, how much better does it get?”



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continued from Front

martin cleary interviewed me once. it was following the one athletic “achievement” that people seem to re-member me for in my lacklustre sports career. I’d just fin-ished near the back of the pack in the high school senior boys’ 3,000 metres, but was that last 100 m spectacular...

dressed in Ottawa senators boxers, a jersey draped over my bib number and then the best part of my tribute to my hockey team at playoff time, i got a teammate to hand me a large flag that I carried down the homestretch to the finish line.

my name made it into the “sidelines” briefs, and you better believe how proud i was. my parents still have the newspaper clipping stashed away.

This memory flashed into my head as I read, with profound sadness, martin’s farewell column in the Ottawa citizen. it got me thinking about how many countless other people he’s touched with his care and devotion to ama-teur sports in our city – probably 99.9% of whom had far

greater athletic achievements than myself.but that’s a big part of what made martin special. it

wasn’t about grabbing a quote from the winner of the race and jotting down his time. He’d look for the cross-coun-try runner who’d lost his shoe in the mud pit and had to run half the race barefoot. it was about capturing the spirit of an event, and asking questions to find out what really made the athletes tick.

it required a true passion for amateur sport – which never wavered over 39 years – and it involved genuinely caring about the participants involved. nobody can pos-sibly ever match martin in that department.

“He’s almost the Ottawa sports community’s soul and conscience, wasn’t he?” says tom casey, a retired former citizen sports editor. “there wasn’t anybody in amateur sport that didn’t know martin or martin didn’t know them.

“He was so well respected and so well known. His list of contacts was beyond belief. and it’s not just the

most glamorous amateur sports – like track-and-field and swimming – if you needed a name for a fencer, or water polo or modern pentathlete, martin knew all about them.

“it’s a big hole for the citizen, let me tell you. they’ll never be able to fill it, that’s for sure.”

martin says the main reaction people have had to news of his retirement is sadness, and a worry that ama-teur sports news will fade further out of focus for the city’s largest daily. that was one of my main worries too. yes, the Ottawa sportspage will always be committed to that group and is only growing, but there’s no doubt the citizen is read by more people on a daily basis.

losing martin and his institutional knowledge will un-questionably be a major blow to the local amateur sports scene that deserves its spotlight, but it sounds like the beat won’t be totally abandoned.

“i think the paper will continue to take amateur sport as a serious beat,” martin said by phone from home as he watched the Olympics without having to report on them for the first time in decades. “I’m sure it will be picked up. I don’t think they’ll be letting that go.”

martin met with gold Holder, primarily a golf colum-nist at the moment, before his departure about picking up the beat come the fall. and martin doesn’t rule out writing here and there next year once he’s had some time to re-lax, maybe travel, and of course prepare for his daughter’s wedding in early september.

martin believes “it was the right time to leave” the cit-izen, and not because of the buyout package on the table due to postmedia’s cuts, it was for his own health.

“i was kind of exhausted and tired,” martin explains. “there were growing demands – and sometimes that came from me because i knew there were things out there that had to be covered, and i’d tackle them myself because there was no one else to do it.”

a local sports scene that’s grown tremendously in recent years, reduced staff, blogging, tweeting and video – they all contributed to a greater workload on top of what was already a full-time job.

“it was getting to be a little too much to handle,” says the 2007 Ottawa sports awards media lifetime achieve-ment award winner. “already having had one heart attack (a few years ago), i didn’t need to have another.”

take that as a sign of martin’s passion. in the same manner that high-performance athletes are dedicated to their sports, martin was devoted to being a high-perform-ance amateur sports reporter. what he loved most was “the process – from start to finish.”

“it’s the people, really,” martin adds. “i’ve had some wonderful people to work with – not only in our sports de-partment, but out in the Ottawa sports community. they are a tremendous group of coaches, administrators and ath-letes who helped me along. i appreciate everything they did for me.”

and the Ottawa amateur sports community appreci-ates what you’ve done just as much. an adequate thank you is not possible.

How well do you know Ottawa’s 2012 Paralympics participants? Fill in their names as indicated.

OTTAWA SPORTSPAGE CROSSWORD

photos: dan plouffe

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JUNIOR LEAGUESOSU & Cap U side-by-side in U17

It was a 1-1 draw in their last encounter, and as the Ontario Youth Soccer League season pro-gresses, the Ottawa South United and Capital United U17 girls are getting closer and closer in the standings.

Their leading scorers – Sashini Senarath and Arielle Kabangu respectively – are also neck-and-neck at #2 and #3 in league scoring. At 6-3-3 and 5-3-2, OSU and Capital United are safely atop the relegation line, which was objective #1 for OSU.

“We’re doing a lot better than the last time we were in OYSL,” highlights Senarath, who’s headed into Grade 12 at Longfields-Davidson Heights Secondary School. “We have the same players, but altogether we’re just a better team this year. We all knew each other really well. We’re all used to everyone’s style.”

That’s the product of the same core group of players sticking together for five years, even after getting relegated from OYSL in their last appear-ance in the top provincial league and having to win their way back in.

“I don’t think I’d play soccer if I had a differ-ent team,” Senarath adds. “I love my teammates. Everyone’s unique and everyone’s friendly.”

With a 1-3 start, pre-season visions of a di-vision crown became tougher to see for Capital United, but the squad has since reeled off a six-game unbeaten streak to narrow the gap towards OSU, who sit third.

“It’s been up and down,” notes Capital United coach Raz El-Asmar. “But we’re starting to get more consistency now, which we didn’t have at the beginning of the year.”

Families stick together when times are tough, so if that’s the case for the Ottawa Fury U14 girls’ team that has adopted that family attitude for their soc-cer squad, they should rebound from their current three-game losing streak a stronger group.

“The biggest key for this team has been the teamwork attitude,” notes coach Marcelo Plada, whose squad still carries a respectable 5-5-2 record des-pite the recent slide. “They’re sisters and I’m their big brother. We’ve got to work as a unit and a family, and I think that’s what they done really well this year – sticking together and supporting each other.”

The Fury still have their

sights set on an appear-ance in the USL Super-Y league finals tournament, which would be a nice re-ward for the hard work his young players have put in, Plada adds.

“They’ve made a lot of steps for-ward and pro-gressed really well. In terms of development, it’s been awesome,” he notes. “They have their moments, but

that’s soccer for you. Some days you have it, and some days you don’t.”

Fury U14s stick together on road to finals

An Ontario Youth Soccer League division title eluded Ottawa South United in the last game of their sea-son, but the club now has two teams poised to make history as they cur-rently lead their categories well into their campaigns.

The U17 OSU Force will likely have to make up some ground on Ajax in the end since the second-place squad has played fewer games, but OSU still looks strong with its

7-2-2 record.With an 8-1-3 record, the Ott-

awa South United U15 - A squad is perched atop their division standings, while the second OSU - B squad entered in the league has also picked up a couple victories, as has Capital United.

At 4-1-3, the Capital United U16 girls are also in the hunt in their di-vision, currently occupying the third position.photos & text: dan plouffe

2 OSU teams sit 1st in OYSL boys’ standings

September

As Canada and the U.S. battled tooth and nail overseas, the same type of matchup took place in Manotick at the inaugural Aug. 3-6 Showcase of Champions tournament run by Ottawa South United Soccer Club.

But after the ’99 Force Academy White girls went toe-to-toe with the Dallas Texans, it was all smiles on both sides as they exchanged pins with Canada and USA/Texas flags on them.

“They love it,” notes OSU coach Taylor Lincoln. “They had a lot of fun with that.”

For Texans coach Jason Glotzbach, the trip all the way to Ottawa for the “top-notch” tournament was worth-while.

“We get the experience of playing different teams in a different setting. We play the same teams over and over in north Texas,” notes Glotzbach, whose team was knocked out by the second place finishers, the Ottawa In-ternationals. “And playing an age divi-sion up allows us to see that strength and size that we usually don’t always get to see.”

The participation of a team from Dallas in a first-time event is no coin-

cidence. OSU has maintained an affil-iation with the Texans for around five years. Force players will often appear as guest players for Dallas in big show-case tournaments south of the border.

u.s. sHOwcase mOdel

The tournament followed the same format as events such as the Disney College Showcase, which meant qual-ity games once a day instead of a more tiring schedule, highlights organizer and OSU general manager Jim Lianos.

“We wanted to do a showcase tour-

nament where the competition is very good – something different than what everyone else does,” Lianos adds, not-ing they turned away several teams that could have brought the total above the 100 mark. “For us it wasn’t the quantity that was important, it was the quality.”

Teams from Edmonton also jour-neyed a long distance for the event OSU wants to further grow in future years. They hope word of mouth will help them attract more top-tier teams from farther, and that they can increase the number of coaches and scouts at-

tending the event from the two dozen that came for round one.

While a college soccer ca-reer isn’t on the near horizon for Lincoln’s preteens, participating in an event like the Showcase of Champions can be a useful endeavour for the younger age groups as well, she maintains.

“It gives them an opportun-ity to not be spellbound in the future when they are looking for scholarships,” explains the OSU women’s premiere team player. “They’ve already been through the process and kind of know what it’s about. The more ex-posure for these girls, the better really.”

Three local teams won di-vision titles at the event held at George Nelms Fields and Ben Franklin Park. The OSU U14 girls’ were tournament champi-ons, beating Waterloo and Oak-ville en route to their crown, while the West Ottawa Soccer Warriors knocked off the Cum-berland Cobras 2-1 to take the U17 boys’ final.

The Capital United and OSU U17 girls wrote the latest chapter in their ongoing rivalry as Cap-ital United scored a decisive 4-0 victory in this encounter.

Capital United also reached the U13 boys’ final where they fell to Dixie.

Three other OSU squads were division finalists – the U16 boys, the U15 and U16 girls.

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By Dan Plouffe OSU Force Academy ZoneF r i e n d l y

and welcom-ing people, a diverse com-munity that mixes well together, and the potential

for his new club to be on par with the coun-try’s top professional academies – those are Paul Harris’s initial impressions after two months on the job as head coach at Ottawa South United.

It’s a big change in scenery for the former Everton FC International Football Develop-ment Officer and Coach who was born in Barnsley, grew up in Stoke, and then moved to Liverpool for work.

But he couldn’t be more pleased that what he observed in half a dozen trips to OSU – made possible thanks to the club’s associ-ation with Everton – is the reality.

The club’s plans for the George Nelms facility and the ambitions OSU carries were the big selling points for Harris, who’d been encouraged by the club’s leadership headed by President Bill Michalopoulos to take on the role for some time.

“They said it’s great when you come to town for a week or two – it’s really positive, but then it dwindles when you go away,” re-calls Harris, a UEFA A licensed coach.

He also looked forward to the possibility of really putting his own stamp on a club.

“When you’re working for a professional club, you’re almost a cog in the wheel,” Harris highlights. “Being the head coach at Ottawa South United was almost like a blank canvas. It was an attractive proposition.”

Education Will bE kEy to rolEHarris is using his first few months as an

observation period, trying to meet people in-volved at all levels of the “vast” club – from recreational to competitive, in the grassroots academy starting at age six to men’s and wo-men’s premiere teams – in order to identify priorities and then put programs in place to address any deficiencies. He suspects that education will be his primary focus.

“I’m not saying that there’s not some knowledge here, because there certainly is,” notes Harris, who would also like to help top coaches achieve their career ambitions in

soccer. “But if we can look at it in terms of a professional mindset instead of maybe an amateur, it might just help drive the standard up a little bit.

“It’s the little things – how you look, being organized, being on time – that might make the difference.”

It’s not quite the same landscape for Harris as back home, where there are 20 profes-sional teams within a half-hour of each other in the north of England and young players spend much more time on the pitch training.

“The biggest difference is the culture,” explains the Chapman Mills resident. “Here, obviously hockey would still be the #1 sport, and because of the weather, there’s certain limitation on soccer – thank God for the domes and bubbles. But in England, foot-ball is everything. It’s the #1 sport that pretty much everybody grows up playing.”

Harris does observe the shift that’s taking place in Ottawa and Canada, however, as more young athletes are playing soccer be-cause it’s less expensive, and many families from elsewhere in the world where soccer is the main sport have come to Canada and want their children involved.

“We want them to fall in love with it,” Harris smiles. “We understand that we’re compet-ing with hockey, but we’ve got to give the boys and girls such a good time that they see soccer as their favourite sport and where they want to go.”

The overall objective is to produce play-ers for the next level – in college, MLS or Europe. He’d like to see the OSU Force Academy have a high professional-like ori-entation in terms of program curriculum and delivery, coaching, and a culture of continu-ing improvement and expectation.

“I’d love for it to rival Toronto FC and Montreal Impact,” Harris says. “I want the best for the soccer here in Ottawa, and es-pecially at OSU.”

OSU can rival TFC & Impact academies, new head coach believes

OSU and Dallas traded pins with Canada and U.S. flags on them after their match.

photo: dan plouffe

A diverse group of boys playing under the banner of an Italian club, with a Spanish team name, and led by a Hungarian coach were chosen as BMO team of the Week in July. Voting to decide a nationwide champion begins in mid-August, with the winner receiving $125,000 for field refurbishment. An Ottawa Royals squad will also be in the running.

team OF tHe week

photo provided

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It’s by no means an easy league to succeed in, but it’s become almost an expectation that the Myers Riders and Cumberland Panthers names will emerge near the top of the Ontario Varsity Football League standings at the Bantam, Junior Varsity and Varsity levels each summer.

The city’s west and east end teams are geared up for another run at the provincial prize this month, and al-though they’re rivals on the gridiron, both clubs list off a couple mutual points that are key to their success.

It starts with a strong fall league – the National Capital Amateur Football Association – where players can de-velop their skills, and then a spirit of cooperation amongst the dozen clubs when it comes time to unite under the Riders or Panthers brands.

ncaFa club cOOperatiOn key “In my opinion, we have the best minor league system in Canada,” says Ralph Siciliano, the coach of the Ott-awa squad that earned the best record in OVFL this regular season, the 8-1 Bantam Riders.

“There’s coaches from all the clubs – the Giants, the Raiders, the Bengals, the Generals, and the Panthers, so that brings the kids to the varsity program,” highlights Cumber-land executive member François deRepentigny, who had 200+ players show up to try out for their three squads. “All the clubs are represented.”

mix OF cOacHes

Coaches from different clubs working together on a staff is cru-cial, Siciliano agrees.

“What I want to make sure – and I also use it as a recruiting tool – I don’t just want my guys from the Myers system in the fall,” he explains. “I get coaches from different clubs so they bring their kids.

“Yes we wear the Myers Riders

logo, but we’re basically Ottawa West. And we make sure the kids who de-serve to play are the ones who play.”

It’s been a winning formula – one that has seen the Riders squads appear in the championship game in three consecutive years.

gearing up FOr playOFFs

“Our record speaks for itself,” Si-ciliano highlights. “These kids work so hard. Every week we’re getting better and better and better. That’s all you want as a head football coach.”

Although if he could have one ad-ditional wish?

“We’re really excited about our chances to win the championship this year,” adds the coach of the group that lost only in Week 1 on the road to the defending champions from Cam-bridge. “I’ve got basically the same coaching staff over the last four years, and we’re very hungry.”

All six local teams were on track to qualify for the postseason, with the Riders sitting at 6-3 (varsity) and 7-3 (JV), and all three Panthers teams car-rying 7-3 records.

The first round of playoffs are set to take place on the Aug. 11 weekend.

Proud Ottawa OVFL tradition carries on in 2012By Dan Plouffe

COMMUnITY CLUbS

Nepean won the Tyke B/C and Novice B/C category at the 16th an-nual Nepean Knights lacrosse tournament in mid-July. The host club also earned second-place showings in the Bantam B/C and C/D divi-sions, as well as the Intermediate category.

Gloucester emerged as Midget B/C champions thanks to a 4-2 win over Kahnawake in the final, while the Griffins were also finalists in Peewee B/C.

Local teams will take part in the Ontario championships in August.

Knights warm up for provincials with wins

photos: dan plouffe

Myers Riders junior varsity quarterback Dimitri Roland was named OVFL player of the week earlier this year and is now ready to lead his team into the postseason.

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On top of the athletes, there are many, many coaches, officials and staff headed to the Para-lympic Games from the nation’s capital.

She didn’t make it the Games as an athlete herself, but Ottawa-born Janice Dawson is now going as the head coach of the Canadian women’s goalball team. Having moved to Calgary to train at the Olympic oval in speed skating – where she once beat Catriona Lemay Doan, “my one claim to fame,” she laughs – Dawson’s career in goal-ball started with a simple invitation from a friend to help her out with the Alberta women’s time.

Now her full-time job, Dawson says the feel-

ing of going to a Paralympics is just as an excit-ing for a coach.

“It’s pretty amazing,” says the 2004 and 2008 Paralympic coaching veteran. “The Opening Ce-remonies is an amazing thing to walk into a sta-dium full of 80,000 people yelling and screaming.

“It’s awesome to be able to represent your country and work with a great group of athletes. It’s like a dream job for me.”

With many national sports organizations call-ing Ottawa home, there is a plethora of support staff headed to the London Games from the na-tion’s capital.

Some of the coaches from Ottawa include para-athletics coaches Hugh Conlin and Ian Clark, shooting coach Rick Ward, and rowing coach Jeff Dunbrack. And former Olympic rower Alison Korn is the Canadian Paralympic Com-mittee’s manager of media relations.

Ottawa coaches head to Games

Janice Dawson is the head coach for the Canadian Para-lympic women’s goalball team.

OTTAWA AT THE PARALYMPICS

The young woman got to pursue her dream without the worries of accessibility, food preparation and mundane housekeeping duties. The re-tirement community got a fo-cus that kept 100 seniors, for over a year, hoping and pray-ing that the day where Schloss would be named to the Lon-don 2012 Paralympic team. A send-off party was held last week where Schloss was feted before she departed for the Aug. 29-Sept. 9 Games.

Here are portions of the Ottawa Sportspage’s e-mail interview with the first-time Paralympian:

Q: How did you enjoy the

send-off event?A: The event was ab-

solutely incredible. I felt so special, especially since Don Henderson (the manager of where I live) organized the en-tire event himself.

I have become close to a lot of the residents, so that made it even more special. I had many interviews for CTV, CBC, some newspapers, and even a radio show.

I never thought I would be able to speak on a program, or be live on TV.

Q: How would you rate the support folks at the Court at Barrhaven have shown you?

A: They have been ab-solutely amazing. They have given me so much support, I

feel like they are all my grand-parents.

Q: Who has been your biggest helper along the way?

A: Lauren Barwick, be-cause she introduced me to the possibility of competing in the Paralympics. I didn’t really think it was a possibility before she started introducing me to people as a Paralympic athlete.

Q: What are your goals for the Paralympics?

A: My entire goal is to do my personal best. Doing my personal best may or may not lead to a medal, but either way I will be happy.

Q: What has been your biggest challenge to getting to qualifying for the games?

A: I have had to move to Ottawa and then to Florida and back to Ottawa for training. I have had to find accessible housing and assistants to help me with driving and my horse.

Q: What are you most looking forward to in London?

A: Competing with the team as a member representing Canada.

photos & text: dan plouffe

SCHLOSS: Backed by Court at Barrhavencontinued from p. 14

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Gymnastics directors take in 2012 Olympic experienceTwo local gymnastics administrators – Deszo

Mesko and Kellie Hinnells – are currently in London, England to take in the Olympic Games.

For Dezso Mesko, the owner of Olympia Gymnastics, it’s simply to enjoy the show. Prior to the Games, Mesko wasn’t sure if he’d attend a live event, even though contacts likely could arrange to get tickets for him. It was just about soaking in the atmosphere of being around the world’s greatest athletes.

Either that, or he was too worried about what would happen in the gymnastics competition.

“Coming from Romania, that alone will bring my stress level up, since I am very passionate about the gymnastics!,” Mesko says by e-mail. “I will try to stay connected as much as I can to the numerous events where amateur Canadian and Romanian athletes are involved.”

It couldn’t have worked out much better for Mesko. The Romanian women’s artistic team kept its remarkable streak of winning a medal at every Olympics since 1976 alive with their bronze, while the Canadian ladies wildly ex-ceeded expectations by earning a place in the team final and finishing fifth.

new cycle OF Olympic dreams

It’s that type of memory that he hopes to bring back and apply as motivation when he re-turns to his club in west Ottawa.

“This year I will celebrate 10 years in Canada,” Mesko adds. “I started a club from scratch. I found a country with great opportun-ities and my European values are the assets that I believe made Olympia Gymnastics successful.

“London 2012 will definitely recharge my goals to stay competitive and to bring my athletes and parents a new cycle of Olympic dreams.”

For Hinnells, the general manager at Ottawa

Gymnastics Centre, London 2012 was more of a business trip. She’s there to observe how it all unfolds in preparation for her upcoming role as gymnastics competition chair for the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto – a post she was granted earlier this year.

“I’m really, really excited about it,” Hinnells says. “It’s going to be a good challenge, so it makes me a bit nervous too. But I know I’m up for the challenge and there’s a lot of really good people who want to be involved.”

—Dan Plouffe

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Jody Schloss

Despite sporting the colours of his athletes’ Brazilian foes, Ian Clark will be in London to coach Canada’s Jason Dunkerley and Josh Karanja in para-athletics.

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When 10 Ottawa Lions were selected out of the 26 athletes officially nominated to the Cana-dian track-and-field team for the London Para-lympic Games on Canada Day, the proof was there – the nation’s capital has become a central hub for the nation’s top para-athletes.

Half of those Lions moved to Ottawa from elsewhere in Ontario in the past year to train under wheelchair coach Amanda Fader and Hugh Con-lin, a national para-athletics event group coach.

“The most important thing for athletes, both for able-bodied and para-athletes, is to have good coaching, good programs and access to good fa-cilities and support groups, like physiotherapy,” Conlin highlights. “We have outstanding facilit-ies all-year round and it’s a good high-perform-ance atmosphere for athletes to be around.”

Conlin has been a track and field coach since 1976, getting his start coaching at a school he was teaching at, and then moving on to coaching in the community club system. The Ottawa native is the lead coach for ambulatory athletes, which includes athletes who are visually impaired, ath-letes with cerebral palsy, and also amputees.

“I enjoy working with para-athletes,” says Conlin, noting there isn’t much of a difference from coaching able-bodied athletes other than some training modifications to accommodate physical imbalances. “They’re very thankful to be able to have an opportunity to compete and to have an opportunity to be in athletics. It’s really satisfying to work with these athletes. The club, and myself, we take a lot of pride in our Para-lympic athletes.”

Conlin currently coaches Brandon King, a runner with a visual impairment, who will take part in his first Games along with guide runner Andrew Heffernan. They’ll compete in the T11-13 4x100 m alongside Lions teammates Jon Dunkerley and Sean Young.

Leah Robinson – the youngest member of the Canadian Olympic or Paralympic team in Beijing

at age 14 – will compete in the T37 400 m event for athletes with cerebral palsy.

Rachael Burrows, who will make her Para-lympic debut in the T34 100 and 200 m, moved from Burlington, Ont. to Ottawa to train as a full-time wheelchair sprinter under Fader, while vet-eran wheelchair racer Curtis Thom – coached by Bob Schrader – also represents the Lions. Jason Dunkerley, Josh Karanja and Josh Cassidy are the other London-bound Lions.

HigH-perFOrmance HOuse

Robinson, Burrows and King are currently living together as housemates near the Terry Fox training facilities.

“You want the athletes to live in a place where they have comfortable living arrangements and where they can get to the training centre easily,”

Conlin notes. “They all have the same goals, they all have high standards for themselves and I think it’s a good thing to be around people who have the same goals and objectives that you have.”

The trio are all strong candidates to reach their respective event finals.

“Our expectations are for them to run a life-time personal best at the Games,” Conlin says. “Anything can happen at the Games, but we want them to have the best possible performance at the most important meet of their life.”

Canada has been seventh or better, in terms of gold medal count, in every summer Para-lympics since the 1976 Paralympic Games, held in Toronto. Conlin explains that there is reason to believe that Canada will continue to be one of the top countries competing at the Paralympics for years to come.

“I think the para-athletics program has been getting stronger in Canada,” he says. “The more funding that we can get to improve training camps and conditions – that would be helpful.

“But continuing to put emphasis on coaching and programs and placing athletes where they can get those good programs – those are the keys to success.”

Ottawa – the hotbed of Canadian para-athleticsBy Jaehoon Kim

photo: dan plouffe


Brandon King and Leah Robin-son are two of four Ottawa Lions para-athletes from out of town who live together near Terry Fox Athletic Facility.

bRAnDOn kIng

events: t11-13 4x100m, 200 m (tbc, ranked #31)classiFicatiOn: t12 (visually impaired)age: 21assOciatiOns: liOns t&FHOmetOwn: bramptOn previOus games: 1stHigHligHt: t12 200 m ca-nadian recOrd HOlder

AnDREW HEFFERnAn

guide runner FOr brandOn kingage: 23assOciatiOns: Ottawa liOns, uOttawa gee-geesHOmetOwn: peterbOrOugHpreviOus games: 1stHigHligHt: uOttawa grad, HOnOurs pOlit-ical science & HistOry

LEAH RObInSOn

events: t37 400 m (6tH)classiFicatiOn: t37 (cerebral palsy)age: 18assOciatiOns: liOns t&FHOmetOwn: mannHeim previOus games: 2008 beijing – 10tH 200 mHigHligHt: 5tH at 2011 wOrld cHampiOnsHips

CURTIS THOM

events: t54 400 m (wOrld ranked 1st), t53-54 4x400 m relayclassiFicatiOn: t54 (wHeelcHair)age: 26assOciatiOns: liOns t&FHOmetOwn: mississaugapreviOus paralympics: 2004 – 4tH 4x100 relayHigHligHt: cOacHed by FatHer ken as well

RACHAEL bURROWS

events: 100 m (ranked 6tH), 200 m 5tH) classiFicatiOn: t34 (wHeelcHair)age: 29assOciatiOns: liOns t&FHOmetOwn: barriepreviOus games: 1stHigHligHt: First inter-natiOnal race at age 16

COMPETITION SCHEDULEkING: MEN’S T11-13 4 x 100 M RELAY

SEPT. 1, ROUND 1 & fINAL, 4:54 P.M. ET T12 200 M – SEPT. 8, fINAL, 3:18 P.M. ET

ROBINSON: wOMEN’S T37 400 M SEPT. 6 ROUND 1 – SEPT. 8 fINAL 6:42 A.M. ET

BURROwS: wOMEN’S T34 100 M AUG. 31, R1 & fINAL, 3:18 P.M. ET

T34 200 M – SEPT. 6, R1 & fINAL, 3:12 P.M. ETTHOM: MEN’S T54 400 M – SEPT. 5, ROUND 1

SEPT. 7, SEMIS & fINAL, 4:11 P.M. ET MEN’S T53-54 4 x 400 M RELAY

SEPT. 8, ROUND 1 & fINAL, 4:45 P.M. ET

Long-time Ottawa Lions coach Hugh Conlin now serves as a para-athletics national team coach.

photo: dan plouffe

The opportunity is there to win a medal at the London 2012 Paralympics, and Patrice Dagenais knows it. It’s been a lifelong dream to be the best in the world for the 27-year-old – first as a hockey player, and now as a member of the Canadian wheelchair rugby team.

Dagenais believes that six of the eight com-peting teams have a true shot at reaching the top step of the podium, and although the U.S. is the clear-cut favourite (it’s been eight years since Canada last downed their neighbours en route to silver in Athens), the #2 spot in the world rank-ings belongs to Canada.

“It’s not going to be easy,” notes Dagenais, whose squad fell 53-51 to the Americans in a close Canada Cup tournament final in B.C. in July. “We definitely have a chance. We’re aiming for gold, that’s for sure.”

The rivalry between the two nations in wheel-chair rugby isn’t much different than the one on the ice, notes the former hockey captain who won

three consecutive high school league champion-ships in his hometown of Embrun.

Dagenais was playing junior hockey for St-Isidore when his life very suddenly changed at age 18. While working on a construction site, Da-genais fell into a stairway hole from the second story of a house all the way to the basement. The result was paralysis from the chest down, and loss of some function in his arms and hands.

“It was definitely hard to experience,” says the athlete who, at 1.0, is classified toward the lower end of the sport’s scale that assigns play-ers a point value between 0.5 and 3.5 for their functional ability. “The first couple of years, es-pecially, were really hard.”

It took a year-and-a-half, but two players he met in Embrun encouraged him to try out wheel-

chair rugby with their Ottawa Stingers club.“It’s a contact sport, so being able to hit and

score goals reminded me of hockey,” recalls Da-genais, who trains at Fisher Park Community Centre and the rehab centre’s gym on Smyth Road when he’s with his local club. “I fell in love with the sport right away.”

First reaching the senior national team in 2009, Dagenais now trains six days a week, mul-tiple times per day, and is one of three players on the Canadians’ 12-man roster who will make their Paralympic debuts in London.

“It’s a lot of hard work, but I just love it,” smiles Dagenais. “I’m able to compete at the highest level, and have the chance to travel all over the world.

“There are some sacrifices, but everything’s

going to be worth it when I come to the Para-lympics.”

Competing at the London 2012 Games and taking a shot at gold is such a tremendous oppor-tunity that it’s even coloured the way Dagenais reflects on the day his life changed.

“As a kid growing up following hockey, the Olympics was always a dream of mine,” he high-lights. “Because of my accident and my injury, now I’m able to live that life.

“I’m loving what I’m doing right now.”

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Real or imagined, athletes often talk about a snowball effect when it comes to winning Olympic medals.

Seeing a fellow countryman capture a medal fuels them towards their own triumph. Count David Blair as one of the believers.

A couple dozen rowers gathered by the boathouse in St. Catharines to watch the Olympic rowing on a pro-jector before getting out on the water. Nearing the end of a tough six-week training camp, Blair’s crew was en-ergized by the Canadian eights’ silver medal performances in London, and they out and had a great session as they prepare for their Paralympic races on Aug. 31 and Sept. 2.

“Now we’re all really pumped and energized for our workout tomorrow,” Blair explains. “It carries over, and that’s important.”

Born legally blind, Blair’s rise to the Paralympic Games was fairly swift, although it did take some encourage-ment from Ottawa Rowing Club coach Jeff Dunbrack – also the national team coach – to make him realize the pos-sibilities.

“Before I got a call from him in May 2010, I was just a club athlete,” the 18-year-old recalls. “I wasn’t ever planning or trying out for any team un-til Jeff got that spark lit.”

There was an invitation to a train-

ing camp to fill in for a sick crew mem-ber, the boat went a bit faster with Blair in it, and before he knew it, he was a world champion, winning gold at the 2010 worlds in New Zealand.

Blair was similarly influenced in the other area he excels in – academics.

“Ms. MacGregor, my Grade 11 English teacher, kicked my butt into gear,” smiles the Merivale High School grad. “She caught me once answering the homework questions from my locker on my way to her classroom.”

Blair had to stay after class, and even though most of his scribbled an-swers were correct, his teacher took extra time to help him find areas that would get him interested and involved.

Now, even as he prepares for the biggest event in his sport, the Car-leton University humanities student is still taking a couple courses to “keep balanced,” and enjoys reading during breaks between sessions.

rOad tO tHe tOp

The Canadian LTA4+ mixed coxed four adaptive rowing crew – which also includes Meghan Montgomery, Vic-toria Nolan, Tony Theriault and cox-swain Kristen Kit – spent two weeks out of every month in Florida during the winter, and has been together most of the time since the ice thawed.

The youngest member of the team and a provincial medalist in able-bod-

ied rowing, Blair has been warned that the Paralympics can be an overwhelm-ing experience that is very different from worlds. He’s not entirely sure what to expect, but he has a plan to cope regardless.

“The way I’ll be able to stay fo-cused is by breaking it up from every day, now until then,” Blair explains. “I just worry about, for this day, for this one morning, this one practice, this one hour, am I doing everything I can to be ready?

“If I can answer yes for each day leading up to the Paralympics, then I can have confidence in knowing that I’ve done everything I need to do.

“Bring it on.”

Accident opens doors to compete at highest level By Dan Plouffe

file photo

DAvID bLAIR

spOrt: rOwingage: 20assOciatiOns:Ottawa rOwing clubcarletOn u ravenspreviOus games: nOne

COMPETITION SkEDAUG. 31 – HEATS, 6:30 A.M. ETSEPT. 2 – fINAL, 6: 50 A.M. ET

David Blair (left) and his Ca-nadian crew won silver at last year’s world championships behind Great Britain, who were nearly five seconds ahead.


By Dan Plouffe

Olympic rowing medals inspire Canadian crew in Paralympic quest

PATRICE DAgEnAIS

spOrt: wHeelcHair rugbyage: 27club: Ottawa stingers previOus paralympics: nOne

Besides having the same objective to carry the ball over the opponent’s goal line, wheel-chair rugby has few similarities to able-bodied rugby. There is contact between the chairs as players try to block opponents from reaching the goal, although physical contact is not permitted. Players may throw, bat or roll the ball, or can hold on to it for 10 seconds before bouncing it on the court floor. Players are as-signed a point value based on their functional ability, from 0.5 for the lowest ability up to 3.5. The four players on the court cannot have a combined total above 8 points.

abOut wHeelcHair rugby

Patrice Dagenais (right) found himself on a wheelchair rugby provincial team not long after taking up the sport. He first dressed for the senior national team in 2009 and will make his Paralympic debut in London.

COMPETITION SCHEDULEAUG. 5-9, DRAw TBA. SEE LONDON2012.COM

These athletes have an impairment that affects their ability to row but are able to use their legs, trunk and arms to accelerate the boat. LTA ath-letes row as a mixed coxed four. No more than two of the mixed coxed four may have a visual impairment and the cox is not required to have an impairment to be eligible.

abOut lta cOxed FOur rOwing

photo provided

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JOn DUnkERLEY

spOrt: atHleticsevents: t11-13 4x100 m relay t11 400 m (ranked 8tH)classiFicatiOn: t11 (visual impairment)age: 32assOciatiOns: Ottawa liOns persOnal best: 54.70 (400)previOus paralympics: 2008 beijing – 7tH, 400 m

SEAn YOUng

spOrt: atHletics (guide FOr jOn dunkerley)age: 29assOciatiOns: Ottawa liOns, canadian strengtH institutepersOnal best: 50.62 (400)previOus paralympics: 2008

“Our goal is to podium in the 4x100 m relay.”

Dunkerley was born in Ire-land but grew up in Guelph, eventually moving to Ottawa to train full-time with the Ott-awa Lions club. The 32-year-old has Leber’s Amaurosis, a congenital eye disease that appears at birth or in the first few months of life, and affects around 1 in 80,000 people.

Young, a Peterborough nat-ive, came to the nation’s capital to study at the University of Ot-tawa and run middle-distance events with the Gee-Gees.

He’s now anchored in the city, running his Canadian Strength Institute business and continuing the successful part-nership with Dunkerley that features all the attributes of a happy marriage.

Consistency, perseverance, along with a chameleon-like ability to adapt and a willing-ness to work really hard are all

part of the chemistry that also includes the more obvious qual-ity: being really good runners.

“(The guide) needs to be able to push the runner,” high-lights Dunkerley. “I can’t push him around the track and he can’t push me.”

This is the reason why his guide has his own list of accom-plishments in track, including a national 800 m title.

“Training is my full-time job,” Young notes. “You have to be at a certain level of perform-ance. Even on my worst day, I have to be better than Jon. It takes a high-performance guide who’s dedicated and willing to make sacrifices.”

Consistency and hard work are the attributes covered by the pair’s training sessions four times a week, many of them with the Ottawa Lions club at the Terry Fox Athletic Facil-ity, a centre that is becoming an unofficial meccca for para-sport athletes. And there’s that chameleon-like adaptability,

a quality that would be quite handy for struggling spouses.

“We have learned to run in a different style – one that is not his and not mine, especially coming out of the blocks,” Young explains.

The pair have also perfected the moments before the start gun goes off, he adds.

“It’s almost a religion, the certain actions we go through before each race,” the 29-year-old says of their series of pre-race special handshakes and motions. “I am never going to let him down. Never.”

Especially when it comes to finishing Dunkerley’s sen-tences. As Dunkerley stretches during practice, he explains a series of animal tattoos located on his powerful body. There’s a wolf, a tarantula and an eagle.

“They are all at the top of their food chain. Nothing messes with them,” Dunkerley explains.

“Or a Dunkerley,” adds his partner Young.

Tony Walby’s long and accolade-filled career in the sport of judo will have one more highlight at the end of the month when he travels to London to represent Canada in the heavyweight division at the 2012 Paralympic Games.

The 39-year-old’s path to the Paralympics features many twists and turns, beginning in his youth growing up in Mechanicsville, a west-end neighbourhood that wasn’t first recognized as a hotbed of athletic talent in that era.

“I started judo really young, I started at seven years old,” recounts Walby. “Tina Takahashi was a student teacher at my grade school and she star-ted an after-school judo program. I went to it and I never left it.”

Takahashi, whose family’s Melrose Avenue dojo Walby still trains out of today, vividly re-members the Connaught Elementary School student’s passion for the sport as a youngster. Walby’s sensei hinted that his early commitment has a lot to do with his rise in judo.

“He always really loved judo, even as a teen-ager,” says Takahashi. ”I used to have early-morn-ing runs at 7 in the morning – we would run up Carlington ski hill or run around the neighbour-hood. We were training a couple times a day and he would never miss a practice. He was the only guy that would go.

“I don’t even think he had proper track shoes, but he would come out and train with us. He was always really dedicated.”

That dedication served Walby well as he ma-tured as a judo fighter, transitioning from a com-mitted youth with a great deal of potential to a top-ranked adult competitor. Some highlights in what is now a 30-year career are: being a member of Canada’s national team for over a decade and

winning 12 senior national medals in able-bodied competition, including gold at the 2008 Canadian championships in Quebec.

That seemed like the perfect finish to a com-petitive career, so Walby retired. But he was drawn back in when he suddenly became eligible for Paralympic competition. Walby had full sight for the majority of his life, but his vision has greatly deteriorated over the last several years.

“I have a cone dystrophy,” explains Walby,

who won a U.S. Open event this year. “What that means is the cells in my eyes that are cones are dying. And there’s no way to regenerate them.”

He certainly hasn’t let the impairment slow him down. While holding down a project analyst job with Correction Services Canada, raising a child with his wife, and coaching judo all at the same time, Walby has continued competing in the sport he loves and secured his ticket to London back in March.

Walby’s perseverance and natural talent

have been huge factors in his continued suc-cess, but he’s also quick to give credit to the many indi-viduals around him who have provided un-wavering sup-port for so many years.

“The club is a family,” Walby says of Takahashi Dojo. “It’s not just run by a family, but everybody at the club comes together and supports each other all along.”

Walby also highlights the huge role his immediate fam-

ily have played in his success, noting his wife drives him everywhere and also handles house-hold responsibilities while he’s training.

“My whole family is super supportive,” he adds.

With plans to retire from competition for good after the London Games, Walby won’t be leaving the sport behind, but instead will focus wholly on coaching, hoping to further develop the Canadian para-national team.

Walby competes on Sept. 1.

Paralympic opportunity cancels retirement plansBy Keeton Wilcock

photo: dan plouffe

TOnY WALbY

spOrt: judOweigHt class: 100 kg+classiFicatiOn: b2 (visual impairment)age: 39 (On aug. 22)assOciatiOns: takaHasHi dOjOpreviOus paralympics: nOneCOMPETITION SCHEDULE

SATURDAY, SEPT. 1, 6 A.M. ET

JON & SEAN: High expectations for veteran sprinting pair entering their second Paralympicscontinued from p. 15


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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 na-tional 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 Col-lege.

“This is making a big difference in terms of their skills, their team-work 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 cent-ralization 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 cham-pionships 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 vari-ous points before that.

“If you want to play goalball, Ottawa is the place to be,” explains

22-year-old Jillian Mac-Sween, 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 cent-ral training ground, then Brampton can take credit for being the factory. Many players have come from the W. Ross Mac-Donald 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 sur-real 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 ath-letes 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 ra-dius,” Amy Kneebone smiles. “We eat, sleep and breathe each other.”

The other thing everyone shares is a clear objective of what they’re out to achieve in London.

“Representing Canada at the Para-lympics is a huge honour,” Kneebone adds. “If we can bring home a medal for Canada, that’d be unbelievable.”

Ottawa-based goalball team shoots for podiumBy Dan Plouffe

photos: dan plouffe

WHITnEY bOgART

age: 26HOmetOwn: maratHOn, OnpreviOus paralympics: nOne

COMPETITION SkEDSEPT. 1 – CAN vS SwE, 8:45 A.M. ETSEPT. 2 – CAN vS AUS, 5:15 A.M. ETSEPT. 3 – CAN vS JAP, 4:45 P.M. ETSEPT. 4 – CAN vS USA, 8:45 A.M. ET

SEPT. 5 – qUARTER-fINALS SEPT. 6 – SEMI-fINALS

SEPT. 7 – MEDAL ROUND

AMY knEEbOnE

age: 22HOmetOwn: cHarlOttetOwn, peipreviOus paralympics: 2008 beijing – FinisHed 5tH

JILLIAn MACSWEEn

age: 26HOmetOwn: HaliFax, nspreviOus paralympics: nOne

CASSAnDRA ORgELES

age: 22HOmetOwn: HOnOlulu, HipreviOus paralympics: nOne

Barrhaven’s equestrian star primedJODY SCHLOSS

spOrt: eQuestrianclass: grade 1aage: 39assOciatiOns: swan manOr stables, tHe cOurt at barrHavenHOmetOwn: tOrOntOpreviOus games: nOne

Originally from Toronto, Jody Schloss is a Grade 1a rider who is very quickly mak-ing a name for herself on the International Para-dressage circuit. Although Schloss began riding recreationally at the age of 11, her competitive Para-dressage career began in her mid-twenties after a car accident in Central America left her in a coma.

When not riding, Schloss enjoys volunteering, sailing and sit-skiing. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psycho-logy and English as well as a diploma as an educational assistant. Schloss began her Masters in Disability Studies but has since put that on hold to focus on riding.

Under the training of her personal coach, Jessica Rhinelander, Schloss repres-

ented Canada in May 2010 at WindReach International CPEDI3* and in March 2011 at CPEDI3* Del-Mar; Schloss was also one of four riders who qualified to represent Canada at the 2011 European Tour.

Schloss trains at Swan Manor Stables in Oxford Mills and has spent the past two years competing interna-tionally with a goal of qual-ifying for the 2012 Games, where she will be making her Paralympic debut in London as a member of the Canadian Para-Equestrian Team.

She currently lives at The Court at Barrhaven, where a deal was struck in June of 2011 between a unique young woman and a retirement com-munity.

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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SCHLOSS continued on p. 10

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With a shared love for light-hearted mo-ments as well as a serious athletic focus, it’s a partnership that’s stood the test of time, and it only takes a moment to see that Jon Dunkerley and Sean Young are having the time of their lives as they enter their second Paralympic Games together.

“The 400-metre sprint is an individual event that we have made into a team event,” explains Young, Dunkerley’s guide runner of over six years.

Of course, it’s hard not to become close – when the two race, they are joined by a cloth rope called a tether.

“We’ve been dating a long time,” quips Young, who then adds, “It’s a big commit-ment.”

With a seventh-place performance from Beijing under their belts, the pair are set to compete in the 400 m and the 4x100 m – both distances in which they placed first at the Canadian team trials in Calgary, with respetive times of 54.93 and 12.12 seconds.

“I am really looking forward to compet-ing,” says Dunkerley. “Last time there were no expectations but now we are to do quite

well. Just rip it!

Long-time friends & world-class athletes hit LondonBy Anne Duggan Known for bringing life to the Canadian

team at the Athletes Village with the way they joke around, the Jon and Sean Show will take the stage together for the second time at a Paralympic Games from Aug. 29-Sept. 9 in London. photo: dan plouffe

COMPETITION SCHEDULEwED., SEPT. 5 – T11-13 4x100 M ROUND 1, 8:28 A.M. ETwED., SEPT. 5 – T11-13 4x100 M fINAL, 4:54 P.M. ET

THU., SEPT. 6 – T11 400 M ROUND 1, 2 P.M. ETfRI., SEPT. 7 – T11 400 M SEMIS, 5 P.M. ET

SAT., SEPT. 8 – T11 400 M fINAL, 3:51 P.M. ET

CASSIDY: Trying times inspire increased confidencecontinued from p. 16

Cassidy wanted to minimize his race schedule prior to the Games, but he was informed that he’d have to repeat the same type of performances he traveled around to attain last season in order to qualify for the Canadian team, which had limited spots.

And then the kicker – a “puzzling” decision was made to cut his Own The Podium funding to the tune of around

$15,000, leaving the part-time illustrator with some major financial struggles when he was already beaten down.

“At first I was seriously, seriously considering retirement,” Cassidy re-calls. “Motivation is tough when nothing seems to be going your way and there’s no support.”

It didn’t end there. Cassidy was sick for weeks, missing training sessions and sleeping up to 12 hours a day with a mys-terious illness.

“At one point the doctors thought I had cancer, so I stayed overnight in the hospital for them to do tests,” recounts the T54-classified competitor. “And I lost my wallet and couldn’t get emer-gency money from Visa in time. It was two months of that kind of stuff.”

There wasn’t any particular turning point that got Cassidy back on track – it was just having faith that he’d pull through eventually.

“It was just a mental decision that this is done,” explains the Ottawa Lion who is coached by Amanda Fader. “There is nothing more the universe can throw at me I don’t think, so let’s move forward.”

Back home in Toronto, things started to look up for the Ottawa-born athlete who was diagnosed with cancer in the spine and abdomen just weeks after birth and lost both legs above the knee.

It culminated on April 16 when Cas-sidy took the lead outright at the 5 km mark of the Boston Marathon and blas-ted forward without the aid of drafting to break the world record by two seconds in one hour, 18 minutes and 25 seconds.

“Coming through those types of set-backs and obstacles and overcoming all of them to come out with a performance like that – that’s why I’m most proud of Boston,” says Cassidy, who grew up in

Port Elgin, Ont. on the shores of Lake Huron. “Now I’m grateful for it. It was one of the toughest things I’ve had to go through, but it’s one of those things you can draw confidence from in the future when obstacles come your way.”

It hasn’t quite been smooth sailing since then as Cassidy battled a mild shoulder injury and pollution-induced asthma prior to his departure for Switzer-land and then London. But he’s reassured knowing what he’s come through, and driven by the thought of having the ma-jority of his nine younger siblings in the stands along with his parents, which was made possible thanks to P&G’s Thank You Mom campaign.

Seeing the torch lit and racing in front of 90,000 people at the Bird’s Nest were major highlights for Cassidy in Beijing – now he can replicate that experience, but also add as many as four keepsakes from the London Paralympics.

“There’s no promises. There’s about 11 or 12 guys in every single event who we all agree could be on the podium. It’s just that close,” Cassidy notes. “I could come away with medals in every event, or I could come home empty-handed.

“Obviously I’m going for a medal in every event. But when people ask me what I expect of myself, the only thing is that I’m going to be in the best shape of my life.”

JOSH CASSIDY

spOrt: atHleticsevents: 800 (ranked 24tH) 1,500 m (4tH), 5,000 m (7tH), maratHOn (1st)classiFicatiOn: t54 (wHeelcHair)age: 27assOciatiOns: liOns t&Fresidence: tOrOntO previOus paralympics: 2008 – 10tH, 5,000 m

COMPETITION SkED5,000 M: AUG. 31 R1, SEPT. 1 SEMIS,

SEPT. 2 fINAL 4:48 P.M. ET1,500 M: SEPT. 3 R1, SEPT. 4 SEMIS,

SEPT. 4 fINAL 4:36 P.M. ET 800 M: SEPT. 5 R1, SEPT. 6 SEMIS,

SEPT. 6 fINAL 4:46 P.M. ETMARATHON: SEPT. 9, 6:30 A.M. ET

JON & SEAN continued on p.13

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He owns a medal from each of the past three Games, and as Canadian para-athletics legend Jason Dunkerley readies for his fourth trip to the Paralympics, he’s shown that he may very well be in the best form of his career now at age 35.

A big reason for the bounce in his stride is the relatively new partnership with coach Ian Clark and guide runner Josh Karanja. Watching Irish-born Dunkerley and Kenyan-born Karanja run at Terry Fox Athletic Facility, it looks like they’ve been working together for awhile, but in fact they only started in August 2011.

After a trial month, it was a match. Having a local guide runner has allowed Dunkerley to make the switch and focus on the 1,500 metres and the 5,000 m, rather than the 800 m race he ran previously, which was dropped from the Para-lympic program due to a purported lack of depth in his T11 category.

“I had never really put much of a focus on 5ks and it is an opportunity to do something new and explore a new area,” highlights Dunkerley, who grew up with a congenital eye condition called Leber’s Amaurosis, as did his two brothers. “The 800 is a fun race and it’s over quickly, and the speed definitely helps (in the longer races).”

Clark is excited about his athletes’ potential.“Jason has made so much improvement in

both his technique and fitness,” he says. “Since

September 2011 he has dropped more than a minute from his 5k time.”

Dunkerley has a current personal best of 4:07 in the 1500 m. So far this year, he has run 4:08 three times and is hoping to improve on that in London. Even though the 5,000 m is his new pur-suit, Dunkerley holds the Canadian record with a time of 15:43 and is ranked second in the world.

With the potential to earn a fourth (or fifth) medal in four Games in the nation where he grew up, it has the makings of a perfect way to cap a career, although Dunkerley isn’t sure about that one way or the other.

“It could be (my last), you never know,” he says. “I think as you get older you start to really appreciate the significance of it. It’s not easy to get to there and it’s not easy to do well and the whole world is getting much more competitive on the para side of things so it has really forced me to get better and evolve. I am not the same athlete I was five years ago or even two years ago.”

Despite being hampered by an injury for over a month before the Canadian team trials at the end

of June, Dunkerley feels confident in his training. “We have done some workouts that I have

never come close to doing before previous to this year,” he notes. “I think Josh and I are a great team and we are going to compete hard.”

Over the past year, they’ve grown close too. “I know it’s tremendously meaningful to Josh

and he puts a lot of pride in what we do,” Dunker-ley adds. “And I know that when the going gets tough, I want to succeed for him in the same way I want to succeed for myself because he has in-vested a lot in it as well.”

Karanja has yet to guide Dunkerley in an in-ternational race against other runners with visual impairments, but expects his experience with the NCAA’s Eastern Michigan Eagles will help.

“Jay is a tough guy, which is what I like,” ex-plains the 28-year-old Nepean High School grad. “I like to be tough when I run. It’s like life really – everyone has the same issues.”

When the gun goes off in London, Dunkerley and Karanja will be in sync not only in stride, but also in game plan.

“I want to go in the best shape possible and contest for the win,” Dunkerley says. “I want to give ourselves every chance and not hold back and leave everything on the track without regrets.”

3-time Paralympic medalist reaches new heightsBy Leah Larocque Three-time Paralympic

medalist Jason Dunkerley (left) has come within one second of his personal best three times in the 1,500 m this season, and is constanly raising the bar in the 5,000 m since he began training with Josh Karanja, his Ott-awa-based guide, last summer.

photo: dan plouffe

JASOn DUnkERLEY

spOrt: atHleticsevents: 1,500 m (ranked 2nd) 5,000 m (wOrld ranked 6tH)classiFicatiOn: t11 (visual impairment)age: 35 (On aug. 21)assOciatiOns: Ottawa liOns persOnal bests: 4:08.05 (1,500), 15:45.07 (5,000)previOus paralympics: 2000 sydney – silver, 1,500 m 2004 atHens – silver, 1,500 m 2008 beijing – brOnze, 1,500 m

COMPETITION SCHEDULEAUG. 31 – T11 1,500 M ROUND 1, 6:23 A.M. ETSEPT. 2 – T11 1,500 M SEMIS, 6:56 A.M. ETSEPT. 3 – T11 1,500 M fINAL, 4:02 P.M. ET

SEPT. 5 – T11 5,000 M ROUND 1, 6:24 A.M. ETSEPT. 7 – T11 5,000 M fINAL, 3:09 P.M. ET

JOSH kARAnJA

spOrt: atHletics (guide FOr jasOn dunkerley)age: 28assOciatiOns: Ottawa liOnspreviOus paralympics: nOne

As one of the veteran leaders of the Canadian team, Jason Dunkerley will certainly be considered as a potential flag bearer for the London Para-lympic Games. Dunkerley medaled in each of the past three Paralympics and is active in advancing the progress of

parasports, especially with his Achilles Ottawa organiza-tion that finds guides for run-ners with visual impairments. Dunkerley was also born in the United Kingdom, which gives him a special connection to Lon-don. Benoît Huot, a 28-year-old swimmer who owns a perfect

dozen Paralympic medals, is an-other strong candidate. Dunker-ley remains humbled by the thought of potential carrying the maple leaf into the stadium. “I’d love to do and it would be an amazing honour,” he says. “It’s something I would do in a heart-beat if I had the opportunity to do it. An incredible thing to do.”

Dunkerley an Opening Ceremonies flag bearer?

Marathon record holder eyes 4 medalsLondon 2012 is Josh Cassidy’s time

to shine. The 27-year-old is at the peak of

his athletic career. He overcame an in-credibly challenging winter season and emerged from it stronger – so strong that he established a new wheelchair mara-thon world record in Boston in April.

He made his Paralympic debut in 2008 and is ready to challenge for a medal in all four of his events in London – the 800 metres, 1,500 m, 5,000 m and

the marathon.“I’ve entered my peak age in the

years following (Beijing). I’ll have more going for me this time around,” Cassidy highlights. “It’s pretty crazy when every waking moment is just geared to this event. It’s draining and demanding and requires so much focus.

“I’m doing everything I can.”At no time was the stress of training

to be on top of the world more evid-ent than this past winter, when nothing could go right for the Ottawa Lions club athlete.

It started when Cassidy arrived in Australia for some warm-weather train-ing. He got a phone call shortly after his arrival saying that his grandmother was in hospital – “on her deathbed with hours to live apparently,” Cassidy recalls, al-though she defied the odds and is now living stably in long-term care.

There was poor training, trouble coping with the heat and equipment problems. And then there was a big forced change to his pre-London plans.

By Dan Plouffe

CASSIDY continued on p.15

lOndOn Here we cOme! Dan Plouffe and Ian Ewing from the Ottawa Sportspage will be there in person to bring you all the news on local athletes from the 2012 Summer Paralympic Games Aug. 29-Sept. 9 in London. Visit SportsOttawa.com and be sure to pickup September’s newspaper.

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