Please remain seated, and you may advance to the Paralympic Games.
Cochrane sitting volleyball player Jesse Ward and coach Ray Seward are at the 2015 Parapan Am Games in Toronto, working to earn Team Canada men one of the two berths available for the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
“It’s been good. We’re looking good. We’re definitely in a strong cycle right now which is good,” said Ward, who lived in Cochrane for a couple of years and has family here. “We definitely have a promising outlook for us as far as finishing in one of the higher positions at Pan-Ams. Our practices have gone really well.”
The 22-year-old Mount Royal University student was born without outer shinbones and had his legs amputated as an infant. With the aid of prosthetic legs, he played two seasons of standing volleyball at high school in Three Hills. He discovered sitting volleyball and started practising with the national program in March 2013. He made the team in May the same year.
“Since joining the program, when he came in, he was one of the fittest and quickest guys on the team,” said Team Canada men’s sitting volleyball head coach Ray Sewell, a Calgarian now living in Cochrane. “Since then he’s really embraced the role of being a high-performance athlete. He’s looking for more training and we’ve been able to do a lot of training since he came to the program.”
Men’s sitting volleyball is played on a court measuring 5x6 metres, with a 1.15-metre-high net. The rules of the game mirror standing volleyball, except you can block a serve.
“They all sit on the floor. When you are playing the ball, you have to have at least one butt-cheek contacting the ground,” coach Sewell explained. “Compared to the standing game it’s a very quick, very fast version of the game. It’s a lot of fun to get down and play and it’s a lot of fun to coach as well. It actually makes for a really good spectator sport.”
But Canada isn’t interested in spectating. The goal at Parapan Am Games is to qualify for the 2016 Para Olympic Summer Games next year in Rio. Basically, Canada needs to finish ahead of the U.S. in Toronto to make next year’s Para Olympic event.
“It’s exciting. A great opportunity to be competing on home soil,” Ward said of the Parapan Am Games in Toronto. “Currently, we’re expected to place third. We’re hoping not to. The U.S. and us are pretty close right now. They’re in a bit of a weaker cycle and we’re in a bit of a stronger one. We’re looking to beat them. And then, hopefully, beat Brazil as well because they are the favourites for coming in first. Basically we have to place second to Brazil or finish first in the tournament in order to get a spot for Rio. That’s our goal. That’s what we’re aiming for.”
