Sledge hockey showcased in Port Colborne
Canadian national team played Team Ontario in three-game series at Vale Centre
Christina Picton didn’t take it easy on her Sledge Team Ontario teammates on the ice at Port Colborne’s Vale Health and Wellness Centre over the Victoria Day weekend.
With a smile on her face the whole time, the Team Canada Women’s Sledge Hockey Team member went all out, delivering hits and taking it to the provincial mixed team in a three-game series.
“I would never hold back just because these guys were teammates last weekend and opponents this weekend,” the Pelham resident said before Game 2 of the series Saturday night.
Picton donned the red and black Maple Leaf jersey to play. It’s her ninth season with the national team. She also plays for the Ontario mixed team.
“It’s always such a pleasure and honour to represent my country and to play with this group of women. We are looking to play some really, really great hockey and really push the women’s game and develop it further,” said Picton.
When the two teams took to the ice Friday night, Picton and her Team Canada teammates and coaches knew it would be a hardfought series.
“We’re playing against the silver medallists for the Canadian (National Sledge Hockey) championships. We knew it would be a tough weekend against a tough team, but that’s what we want,” she said. “We want to push ourselves to play the best in the country and play some of the best men in the country.”
Picton and team coach, Tara Chisholm, said the weekend series was not the first time the women have played men’s teams.
“We’ve played others and it’s always a great opportunity to push ourselves, learn new things and develop as a team, physically, mentally … every aspect,” said Picton.
Chisholm, coming off her sixth season as coach, said the national team chose to come to Ontario and play Sledge Team Ontario because it’s one of the best.
“We knew for our women that
“We want to make sure we are pushing our women every year to get better. One way we can do that is by playing the best.”
TARA CHISHOLM Canadian national women’s sledge hockey head coach
it would be a challenge this weekend. As a program that’s what we’re looking for, a challenge,” she said. “We want to make sure we are pushing our women every year to get better.
“One way we can do that is by playing the best.”
Chisholm said it’s her job as coach, along with her staff, to try to give the women on the national team experiences such as playing the Ontario team to help them learn and grow.
“Some of the women don’t always get the chance to play this high-level hockey back home with their club teams,” the coach said. “It’s a great opportunity to grow more ... and help the team grow overall.”
Chisholm said it’s not too often in sports that women’s teams compete against men’s teams, and she wanted the team to do well.
“I’m happy to see they (Team Ontario) took it to us. That’s how we get better.”
Chisholm and Team Canada president Janice Coulter said the three-game series in Port Colborne was also a good way to build more awareness of the women’s game and expose it to more people.
“Every time we play, it allows us to get in front of people and build awareness. Having it as a series makes it more impactful,” Chisholm said.
Coulter said though the team likes to move around the country to expose more people to the sport, the weekend series was not the first time Team Canada was in Port Colborne.
“We were here in 2016 over the May long weekend to hold a development camp.”
Coulter said Picton, Team Canada’s captain, plays at Vale Centre and kept talking about what a great facility it is.
“She told us we really needed to use it.”
Thirty players came out for the development camp in 2016, some of them being new to the game.
“The community was really welcoming and it’s such a great environment,” said Coulter, whose daughter played for the team.
“When we were looking to do more events we always had this place in the back of our minds.”
With Port Colborne less than 30 minutes away from the U.S. border there was some thought of making this past weekend’s event a cross-border series but that didn’t pan out.
Coulter said Team Canada started off primarily as an Ontario-based team, formed by Sandy and Keith Metzger out of Elmira, just north of Kitchener, to give women more opportunities to play as their skill levels grew.
“It expanded and became the national team ... we have players from across the country. An American team was formed around the same time and the two competed against each other,” said Coulter, who joined the team in 2013.
She said the next goal is to make women’s sledge hockey a Paralympic event and that can only happen by growing and developing the sport internationally. There are women in at least 13 countries who play the game, but at least eight national teams across three continents would be needed to make it into
the Paralympics.