The Canadian Goalball Championships were held in Toronto from April 17-19th. Nova Scotia made history as the first Nova Scotia team to become National goalball champions. Despite winning the gold medal at five of their last seven tournaments, Nova Scotia claimed silver medals at the 2013 and 2014 championships. The team, consisting of Oliver Pye, Peter Parsons, Simon Richard, Yvon Clement, Mason Smith, and John Courtney, were in second place after the round robin. Their round robin record included 4 wins, 1 tie and 1 loss. The scores of the round robin games were:
BC – 7 NS – 3; NS – 6 Que – 1; NS – 9 BC2 – 3; NS – 2 Alta – 2, NS – 8 Ont – 1; NS – 11 Man – 7
In the semi –finals, Nova Scotia played the third place Quebec team and defeated them by a score of 12 to 2. This set up a repeat of the teams in the 2014 final, British Columbia and Nova Scotia. The three starting players on the BC team are all members of the current Canadian Goalball Team. In the 2014 gold medal game, the two teams were tied after regulation play, two sudden death overtime periods, and a set of penalty shots. BC won the 2014 title by defeating Nova Scotia in the second round of sudden death free throws. However, Nova Scotia beat BC in the Gold Medal game at the Michigan Tournament in February 2015. That was Nova Scotia’s second consecutive gold medal win in this very prestigious goalball tournament. In the final match in Toronto, Nova Scotia displayed their very strong defensive talents and capitalized on any errors made by their opponents. Nova Scotia defeated BC by a score of 8 to zero and captured the 2015 Canadian Goalball Championships. Simon Richard, our center, was selected as Outstanding Male Player of the Tournament.
Simon Richard represented Canada at the 2014 World Championships in Finland. Oliver Pye was selected earlier this year to represent Canada at the upcoming 2015 World Goalball Championships that will be held in Korea in May. Peter Parsons was named as an alternate to that team. Nova Scotia is very excited about our prospects for having Nova Scotia team players selected to the teams that will represent Canada at the 2015 ParaPan Ams in Toronto in August as well as the 2016 Paralympics in Rio.
Our Nova Scotia ladies team did an awesome job at the 2015 Nationals. The team consisting of Jennie Bovard, Stephanie Berry, Tarah Sawler, and Kelly Boudreau have improved so much, both offensively and defensively. Despite beating the eventual Bronze Medal winners, British Columbia, by a score of 9 to 3, Nova Scotia was knocked out of the semi-finals by a 4-3 loss to Alberta. They received compliments from other provinces and before long we know that they will be bringing a medal home.