Drills and skills: Canadian women’s national goalball team holds training camp in Ottawa

OTTAWA – While hundreds of students crammed into the Ravens Nest Gymnasium at Carleton University for their final exams, in the gym next door a dozen goalball players started the process to earn berths for the 2025 national team competitions.

Four of the six members from the 2024 Paralympic Games fifth place squad and the 2023 Parapan American Games champion team were at Carleton this weekend: five-time Paralympian Amy Burk of Charlottetown, Meghan Mahon of Timmins, Ont., Emma Reinke of St. Thomas, Ont., and Maryam Salehizadeh of Vancouver.

Four-time Paralympian Whitney Bogart of Marathon, Ont. and Brieann Baldock of Edmonton announced their retirements from the team before the start of this season.

In the second session of the camp on Friday afternoon, head coach Trent Farebrother put the visually impaired athletes through a vigorous two-hour session. There were offensive and defensive drills and players were split into groups to practice some of the sport’s specific skills. It all concluded with the players participating in a large scrimmage.

The major events this season for goalball are the annual Malmo Lady Intercup May 29 to June 1 in Malmo, Sweden, the International Trophy July 11-13 in London, England and the Goalball Americas Championships July 26 to August 6 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The latter is a qualifier for next year’s world championships.

“We are using this camp to pick our team that will go to Malmo next month,” said Farebrother, a former member of the men’s national goalball team and now in his 11^th season as head coach of the women’s squad.

‘’We have seven new players in our pool of 12 so that’s awesome. It’s nice to get some new blood in.”

With five Games under her belt, 35-year-old Burk once again showed her leadership with her tremendous enthusiasm and hard work throughout the session.

“It’s great to be here with a bigger group and we are bringing in younger talent,” said Burk, a mother of two and a lab technician at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) in Ottawa. “It’s the most exciting part about beginning our quad.”

And like the younger players, Burk says she is also trying to improve her skills at the sport.

“I’m always trying to improve my game,” she said. ‘’The technical side of things, the tactics. But again I’m trying to bring my teammates up. We’re going to make mistakes and it’s important not to get down about it. That’s how we learn and grow.”

Seventeen-year-old Cassandra Ruttle of Calgary is participating in her second career national team camp.

‘’It’s super enjoyable and the pace is fast here which I like as well,” said Ruttle. ‘’My goal is to make the team for one of the international tournaments we have this year, it doesn’t matter to me which one.”

Ruttle has come to Ottawa to make a strong impression.

‘’I feel I bring some strong defence especially when I play at centre, and I’ve worked really hard on my communication on the court.’’

Meghan Mahon is a three-time Paralympian and agrees with Burk that the veterans play a key role in these camps.

‘’As a team we have a culture and there are certain things that we stick to that we want to pass down to the new players coming in,” said the 29-year-old who is also a child and youth worker for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind in Calgary.

‘’As veterans on the team it falls a little bit more on our shoulders to make sure everyone is getting the information and being comfortable with what is going on with the program.’’

Mahon says the team’s improvement over the last four years is a big motivating factor for the veterans to return for the road to LA 2028.

‘’I love the team and the sport,” said Mahon. ‘’There’s still one thing missing and that’s a Paralympic Games medal. This is the program that can do it. With three quarters of the team back the young players can see this is a program that can succeed and will succeed.’’