With less than a month before they hit the mat at the 2017 Canada Games, Team Alberta’s wrestling squad is travelling outside of the region – and outside of their comfort zone – to push their athleticism to a higher level.
“Canada Games (are) real big games for these kids,” said Vern McNeice, who leads the Cochrane Cowboys Wrestling Club and also coaches Team Alberta’s wrestlers. “We’re targeting all of our training to be in peak performance for Aug. 9, 10 and 11.”
The biannual Canada Games – both winter and summer – is a breeding ground for some of the country’s most decorated sportsmen and women, including Olympic gold medallist Adam VanKoeverden (who kayaked for Team Ontario in the 1997 Canada Games), Olympic bronze medal sprinter Andre De Grasse (who competed for Team Ontario in the 2013 Canada Games), and NBA basketball stars Steve Nash and Todd MacCulloch (who played at 1993’s Canada Games for Team BC and Team Manitoba, respectively).
Winnipeg will play host to this year’s championships, where as many as 4,000 athletes and coaches from across the country will take part in 16 sports from July 28 to Aug. 13 as part of the country’s largest youth multisport competition.
McNeice said he wanted to challenge his group of more than two dozen wrestlers and alternates as much as possible in advance of the upcoming tournament – so they spent last week at the Legends of Gold development academy, a USA Wrestling training centre in South Dakota, where they lived in dormitories and trained three to four times a day.
Team Alberta will head to Jasper for another week of intense training, followed by a taper camp in Calgary in the days before hitting the mats in Winnipeg.
“We want to bring our level to the highest possible level, and to do that we have to have opponents that are pushing us,” said McNeice from the U.S. camp. “There are kids here that can beat our kids … so we’re challenged. We’re trying to get better.”
In addition to McNeice, wrestlers Connor McNeice – a four-time national champion and a strong competitor in the Mens 65-kg weight class – and up-and-comer Hunter Smith (at 85 kg) are also representing Cochrane on the team. Brothers Isaiah and Elijah Springer both hold alternate spots.
Powerhouse Brendan McKeage, a two-time national champ and favoured to medal at this year’s Games, was forced to pull out of the competition after injuring his left knee during a soccer match in May.
McNeice said Connor and Smith each are dealing with “different types of pressures” as they prepare for the top-shelf tournament.
“Connor’s probably expected to win … and Hunter’s right there knocking on doors,” said McNeice of the two. “The pressures of an athlete … there’s peak and plateaus and valleys. It’s a process of working right through it. We’ve been working hard and we’re going to bring every little bit that we can.”
