Ballers

 I didn't run at all the weekend of April 1st-2nd.

No, I'm not fooling you.

Remember back in February when I talked a bit about goalball? Tank and I have kept playing, and were invited to participate in the Ontario Blind Sports Association's Provincials tournament. The president of OBSA is actually Glen who organizes the Kitchener practices we've been attending, and he cleared Tank and I to play with our makeshift eyeshades (cheap ski goggles with fabric glued inside to completely black out all light and vision). He also set up our team with Kate (a blind lady who started playing goalball with him in November), Tank, myself, and Glen himself as both 4th team member and coach.

The Kitchener Rolling Rangers were given our loaner jerseys at our last practice on March 21st

We were registered in Division 3 - the adult recreational field, versus the kids' recreational and competitive divisions - and were all set to go. We had 3 games on the schedule for Saturday, against teams from Nova Scotia (the Shipwrecs) and Quebec (Team 1 & Team 2), and a sneaking suspicion that these out-of-province visitors might have played more than the 4 times total that comprised Tank's experience...and mine.

How bad could it be?

We arrived early on Saturday - though our first game wasn't until 11am, we pulled into the beautiful grounds of W. Ross MacDonald School for the Blind in Brantford, Ontario around 8:10am as we'd seen an 8:30am warm-up on the schedule and wanted to give ourselves time to get oriented.

Arriving in sunshine

It turned out the warm-up was just time for those teams playing in the first games at 9am to get themselves ready for competition, but this meant we had lots of time to check out some of the competitive division (D1 & D2) action in the other gymnasium from where we'd play all our games.

With 75 participants, this was the largest tournament in Canada in 2023, with several national paralympic team members competing

Apart from the actual sport, it was interesting to see how all of the people - most of whom had some level of visual impairment, as this is technically a sport for the blind - move through the space and crowds of people. We saw some young fellows we had met when a contingent from the school had come up to Kitchener for a practice (actually the very first one we attended), and wished them good luck. I also ended up assisting a couple of people visiting the school in navigating the halls to the student lounge and gymnasiums, offering a voice to follow or an elbow to hold on to as we walked to where they needed to go.

Soon enough it was time for our first match, which turned out to be against a friendly-seeming group of Nova Scotians we had seen earlier in the student lounge.

We hoped they wouldn't go too hard on us

I started on left wing as usual, with Tank at centre and Glen on left wing. Another lady - Chantal - who had come down from Sudbury for the tournament was acting as our coach on the bench, and Kate sat ready to sub in at any point. It was a very strange experience to realize that the change of venue from the familiar little elementary school gym in Kitchener to the larger, more open space of the gymnasium in which we were about to play made it more difficult to navigate, as did having the net behind us.

We had only had walls behind us with gym mats hung on them previously

The floor was wood, too, instead of the tile to which we were accustomed: this made it less uncomfortable to land on (as it has more give), but the sum total was a bit disorienting. Tank and I - being fully sighted - have less experience at finding our position in space via tiny echoes that you barely even register consciously, if at all. The wider space, with more open air behind us, made it difficult for me to know where I was when I'd move around the court. The raised lines (made by taping down string to the gym floor) helped, but only really when I would sweep around with my hands; my feet aren't yet sensitive enough to let me feel them through the soles of my shoes, and it's not permitted to remove or even touch your eyeshades once they've been checked by the referee (which happens before the start of each half) unless you specifically request permission from the ref to do so, after which they are checked again.

In the more competitive divisions, players wear patches of tape directly over their eyes under their masks to ensure full sightlessness

We were down a few goals at the half, but getting amazing coaching help from both Chantal and a young fellow named Nader, who was playing for the Bytown D1 team and is on track to join the national team in the future. I subbed out for Kate for the second half, but in the end the Nova Scotia Shipwrecs took the game 11-5.

Despite Glen's valiant efforts, on his birthday no less!

After the game, we met as a team to go over some coaching points with Chantal and Nader, and to get a team photo.

We might not be winning, but we were learning and having fun!

We had a bit of lunch - the tournament provided sandwiches and pasta salads, plus fruit and juice for all participants (I brought a small cooler with stuff to eat so I was sure to have something safe) - and Tank and I took advantage of the air hockey table in the student lounge. I also had some time to chat with Chantal, who was astonished that we had never played an official game before, and had no idea we had so little experience! I laughed a bit about not needing to be good at things in order to enjoy them (which also applied to Tank having beaten me soundly at air hockey), then off we went for our second game, 1pm against Quebec Team 1.

Hydration and Chantal offering some coaching

This Quebec team actually had a former Canadian paralympic team member on it, and were definitely shooting harder. Glen was doing his best to keep us in it, though!

(A double whistle indicates a goal has been scored, if that's not obvious from the reactions)

A quick note about different playing styles: Glen has been playing for decades, and the sport began as much more of a running-style game, where players stayed on their feet and would dive for the ball. This has evolved over the years so that most athletes start in 3-point stance or on their knees, which is how Tanl, Kate, and myself play, but Glen has amazing ball tracking (which is something with which Tank and I struggle a bit; the ball has bells inside so it makes noise as it moves, but we're not the most precise at being able to figure out its trajectory) and prefers to play on his feet. 

To see him move, you'd never believe that he's completely blind!

It was just before the end of the first half (10 minute halves for D3 games - 12min halves for the competitive divisions) that I took a hard shot from a Quebec player right in the face. My ski goggles had shifted upward a bit, so the frame was right on the crest of my cheekbone, and I found a dark mark when I subbed out so Kate could play most of the second half.

It didn't look like much yet, but I had a feeling I had a shiner in the mail

Unfortunately the substitution wasn't quite enough to improve our odds: we lost again, this time 11-3. Nonetheless, we were starting to feel real improvement with the great coaching that Chantal and Nader offered us, and were a bit less lost on the court. Baby steps!

The Rolling Rangers and supporters: Tank, Mike (Kate's husband), Kate, Barb (Glen's wife), and Glen from L-R

We had one more game against Quebec Team 2 at 3pm, and this was definitely our best one yet.

Nader looks on from the sidelines as a Quebec player winds up for a shot

We stayed in this one right up to the finish, and my shot was actually coming along a bit thanks to Nader's coaching.

I honestly had no idea I had that kind of stride length in me

This was also the first game in which I got to play the whole thing: Tank subbed out for Kate in the second half, with Glen taking over centre while Kate and I stayed in our winger roles, though I was on the right and Kate was on the left in a bit of a reversal of usual.

Tank took these photos

We still lost, but only 7-6 after a late successful penalty shot by Glen. A goalball penalty shot is an interesting thing: they can be called for a few different things, like the ball failing to hit the floor before the halfway line on the court, delay of game, touching your eyeshades, or failing to return the ball within 10 seconds of it hitting a player. The team penalized will leave one member on the court to defend the whole net (in the case of a ball infraction or other personal penalty, it will be the person who threw the offending shot or touched their eyeshades), while the other team is given the ball to shoot at the full 9 metre net.

I'd had to face one myself for a high ball (my shot did not hit the floor before the line), which I was unsuccessful at defending - that's a lot of real estate for one person to cover, especially one who isn't very good at figuring out where the ball is heading!

With our games done for the day, we grabbed some snacks, then headed over to the other gym to watch some more competitive action.

Including Nader with Bytown against the very strong D1 Nova Scotia team

..and the Brantford Honey Badgers, which included the kids who'd come up to Kitchener to practice back in January

It was about 7:30pm by the time we headed out to grab some Thai take-out and try to get a good night's sleep. I had a missing chunk of skin on my right hand from sliding across the wooden floor, and my black eye was coming along nicely.

Though bruises never seem to show up well on camera

We were back the next morning for our final game at 9:40am - the top 4 in our division would play for bronze, silver, and gold later in the day, but with our 0-3 record (and 6 teams in D3) we were just there for more fun and experience.

Good times!

Unfortunately, Glen's shoulder was giving him a lot of grief, so he decided he'd stay on the sidelines - he'd sub in if we needed him, but otherwise it was the rookies' day to shine! I was still able to get some decent power behind my shot, but my aim had gone to heck as my own shoulder rebelled a bit against this unfamiliar usage. Kate scored our only goal in a 15-1 loss to the Nova Scotia Highlanders, and I took a ball hard on the chin that left me with another growing bruise.

My right knee also somehow took a scrape, though the gouge out of my hand didn't get any worse

Oh, and they gave us t-shirts!

Yes, everyone got one - different colours for volunteers and officials

With our own games now done, we headed back over to Gym 1 to watch the high-powered competition going on there.

Bytown in a close-fought game against the strong Nova Scotia team

Ottawa Dynamo in semi-final action

We headed home before the medal games, though, as we still needed to get groceries and sort out everything to head back to work on Monday. We had a limited amount of time to do so, too, as I was booked for some additional fun that evening.

(Which led to another 3 bruises on a forearm, bicep, and my left hand)

So while we lost every game and got a little banged up in the process, we also thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and made huge improvements to our game both as individuals and as a team. Goalball season is now over for the summer, but you better believe we'll be back come fall! It's such an amazing, challenging, and fun sport - I'd highly encourage anyone to try it, and if you're in the KW area please drop me a line and I'll keep you in the loop when practices start up again. There's no cost to give it a whirl, and you can learn so much about the world without sight in the process.

Who knows - maybe we'll even win a game next year!

Huge thanks to Richard & Rana from OBSA for all of their hard work to make this event happen, and to all of the officials and volunteers without whom the games would be impossible. It was well-organized and fun for us as both participants and spectators, and incredible to see the skill level of athletes from 4 provinces in a single weekend!