(Kelowna, BC – April 22nd 2009) – Two new National Junior Goalball Champions were crowned as the BC Junior Men’s Team and the Alberta Junior Women each won the gold medal for the first time at the 2009 Canadian Blind Sports Junior Goalball Championships. The event featured 33 athletes who made up 7 teams from 4 provinces, and engaged in 24 spirited games throughout the weekend at Spring Valley Middle School in Kelowna, BC.

The BC Junior Men were undefeated in the preliminary double-round-robin, and maintained their perfect record by beating Team Ontario by a score of 10 to 6 in the gold medal game. Clemont Chou, Brendan Gaulin, Bobby Jeboult, Deacon Jones, John Tee and Coaches Robert Lebel and Cherrie Lu were all ecstatic with the win, which gave BC Blind Sports its first Gold Medal in Junior Goalball.

On the women’s side, Team Alberta grinded through the double-round-robin with a record of 1 win 2 losses and 1 tie, but definitely came to play when it mattered most beating the BC Junior Women 2 – 1 in the semi-final, and upsetting last year’s Champions Team Ontario (who had given them both of their losses in the round-robin) by the same score in the Gold Medal Game. Rima Kaddoura, Tiana Knight, Megan Luscombe, Tanya Peterson, and Coaches Carol Braul and Nektaria Mayder were elated with their Gold Medal performance after executing their game plan to perfection. This is the second straight Gold Medal for the Alberta Sports and Recreation Association for the Blind’s (ASRAB) Goalball program as the senior men took home the title at the 2009 Canadian Blind Sports National Goalball Championships in March.

The Ontario Blind Sports Association’s Teams took home a pair of silver medals to Brantford’s W. Ross MacDonald School for the Blind, while the Alberta Junior Men and BC Junior Women earned the bronze in their respective categories. The New Brunswick Junior Boys traveled the furthest to compete, and ended up on the wrong side of a couple of close games throughout the tournament, but showed great spirit as they ultimately finished in fourth place.

By all accounts the 2009 Canadian Blind Sports Junior Goalball Championships were a success with coaches and referees noticing improvement in the level of play across all teams, especially in the suddenly ultra-competitive Junior Women’s division. Canadian Blind Sports National Team Coaching Staff was on hand scouting athletes to be named to the Canadian Junior Goalball Teams for this summer’s 2009 IBSA World Youth and Student Games as well as the Canadian National Goalball Team Pools as we move towards 2012 and look to the future for 2016.

2006 Results - Goalball Nationals

Men:

1st - Ontario All Blacks
2nd - Alberta
3rd - Quebec
4th - British Columbia

Women:

1st - PEI
2nd - Quebec
3rd - Ontario
4th - Nova Scotia

2006 Goalball Nationals

This year proved to be a very exciting year for Goalball. Nationals took place March 24 -26 in Calgary, Alberta.

There were eight men’s teams: BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario Red, Ontario All Blacks, Quebec, and Nova Scotia. Going into playoffs the Alberta men’s team was on top of the standing, not losing a single game. Alberta faced the defending champions, the Ontario All Blacks, in the gold medal game. BC squared off against Quebec in the bronze medal match. Quebec’s Mario Caron proved to be too much for BC as they downed BC to win the bronze medal. Despite BC’s tough loss in the bronze medal they improved over last year’s 6th place finish.

The Gold medal game was a fast paced, very exciting game. After 2 halves the score was tied 2-2 as they went into overtime. Ontario retained its championship as they downed Alberta in overtime by a shot that trickled over the centre and into the goal.

Six women’s teams competed: Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and PEI. BC’s Shawn Marsolais competed for team Alberta. PEI, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Quebec finished the top four teams after the round robin. Ontario scored two shootout goals to down Nova Scotia on route to winning the Bronze medal in the first ever Canadian Nationals Shootout. PEI defeated Quebec in the gold medal game.

BC Blind Sports and Recreation Association would like to congratulate Doug Ripley and Shawn Marsolais on making the Canadian National Team pool.

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British Columbia Blind Sports and Recreation Association

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