INSIDE DOUGLAS COLLEGE / MAY 22, 1990

 

 

Sports & Athletics

Hoopsters wheeling to make women’s national team

The squeal of tires was loud
last week in the Douglas College
gymnasium.

Nineteen basketball players
were trying to net themselves a
spot on Canada’s national
women’s wheelchair basketball
team.

Teams from across the country
competed in the national cham-
pionship last weekend at UBC.
The best hoopsters from that tour-
nament are spending this week at
the national wheelchair Basketball
Championship Training and Selec-
tion Camp at Douglas College;
eleven of them will be chosen for
the squad. That team will travel to
France in July for the women’s
wheelchair basketball world cham-
pionships.

“Everybody has a very posi-
tive attitude, so it’s tough to cut
any of them,” says Tim Frick, head
coach of the women’s national
team and physical education in-
structor at the College. “They’re
all good players.”

The camp is the first step in
the development of the team that
will represent Canada in the 1992
Paralympics in Barcelona. “Basi-
cally, we're evaluating them to see
who will make the team. We're
also instituting the strategies and
tactics that we'll be using in
France, and in Barcelona.”

Frick says that wheelchair bas-
ketball, which at one time was con-
sidered to be a form of
rehabilitation for disabled people,
is now no less that a full competi-
tive sport. “These athletes are no

different than any others. They’re
here for fun, and for exercise, but
mainly because they want to win
in France,” he says.

Douglas College is a good
place to hold a camp for wheel-
chair athletes, adds Frick. “It’s
very accessible for wheelchairs,
and the support staff are great.”

Irene Wownuk of Toronto, one
of the hopefuls trying to make the
team, says that clinics like these
are important for the athletes.
“There are four assistant coaches
here, and they've been spending
extra time with us, working on cor-
recting shots, drills, and techni-

ques. And whatever we can learn
here, we take home with us, even
if we don’t make the team.”

Wownuk has played wheel-
chair basketball for six years and
went to the 1988 Paralympics in
Seoul with that year’s version of
the women’s national team. She
feels that the skill level in Canada
is growing every year. “We saw
really good players in Seoul, but
the calibre of player is still getting
higher.”

Wheelchair basketball is a
tough sport. “It requires work and

continued on page 4

Sun, fun & swinging at anniversary
golf tournament

Blue skies and green fairways greeted 44 faculty, staff, students, and
alumni as they teed off at the Mylora Golf Course in the 20th Anniver-
sary Golf Tournament in Richmond on Friday, May 4.

After all the drives were driven and putts were putted, Brynn Parry
doffed his cap to a cheering gallery on the 18th green.

Parry, who is also the B.C.C.A.A. champion, won the tournament
with a steady even-par round. He also won the longest drive contest
with a colossal 295-yarder on the 6th hole. The sharp-shooting Morgan
Field won the ‘closest to pin’ contest, and a truthful round from Georgina
Ferguson won her the prize for ‘most honest golfer’.

Prizes were presented on the clubhouse patio after it was all over.
The jovial mood and the sunburned faces of the swingers indicated that
a good time was had by all.

Special thanks go out to the following sponsors: the Douglas College
Sports Institute, IBM and Dave Mullins, MVP Sports, Betty Lou Hayes,
the Douglas College Library, the Dougias College Public Information Of-
fice and the 20th Anniversary Steering Committee.

 

see tournament results on page 4

 

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