{"id":156,"date":"2015-07-20T15:05:40","date_gmt":"2015-07-20T15:05:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.blindsportsnovascotia.ca\/?p=156"},"modified":"2015-07-20T15:09:04","modified_gmt":"2015-07-20T15:09:04","slug":"nova-scotia-athletes-make-junior-goalball-national-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blindsportsnovascotia.ca\/?p=156","title":{"rendered":"Nova Scotia athletes make Junior Goalball National teams"},"content":{"rendered":"
Mason Smith and Tarah Sawler are the first two Nova Scotians ever to make the Canadian junior goalball national boys and girls teams.\u00a0 They will represent Canada at the International Blind Sports Association’s (IBSA) World Youth Games in Colorado Springs, Colorado from July 28th to the 31st<\/span><\/span>.<\/div>\n
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Tarah, 16 years old from Dartmouth, led the Nova Scotia junior girls to the bronze medal at the junior nationals in Brantford, ON in March.\u00a0 She is in her second year of goalball and also plays for the Nova Scotia Senior Women’s\u2019 team.\u00a0 Mason, 15 years old from Middleton, achieved the rare feat of winning both junior and senior Mens\u2019 national titles this season and has been named to the junior boys national team in just his first year of goalball.<\/div>\n
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Linda MacRae Triff from Dartmouth was selected by the Canadian Blind Sports Association (CBSA) to coach the junior boys national team at this year\u2019s tournament.\u00a0 MacRae-Triff, who also coaches the Nova Scotia Senior Men’s and Women’s teams has also coached the Junior girls team from the beginning of the programs short two year existence.<\/div>\n
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Nova Scotia men’s goalball athlete and junior assistant coach, Peter Parsons from Halifax will be the assistant coach for the Canadian junior boys and girls teams.\u00a0 Parsons says: \u201cIt is a testament to the strength of Nova Scotia\u2019s new Junior Goalball program that both Tarah and Mason have been selected by CBSA to be a part of Canada\u2019s World Junior teams.\u201d\u00a0 Parsons, who is an Orientation & mobility Specialist with the Atlantic Provinces Special Education Authority works with\u00a0 visually impaired youth in the province and is familiar with the unique challenges that they face:\u00a0 \u00a0 \u201cOrganized sports can be a challenge for visually impaired youth.\u00a0 Junior Goalball is a great way to promote acceptance and active lifestyles from an early age.\u201d\u00a0 Parsons adds that the success of our boys and girls Junior program bodes well for the\u00a0 future of Goalball in Nova Scotia: \u201cWe\u2019re just getting started and I\u2019m really excited to see where both our Junior and Senior programs go in the next few years!\u201d<\/div>\n
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Goalball is a Paralympic sport that was created after WWII for blinded veterans. It is a team sport played by athletes who are blind or visually impaired.\u00a0 Played on a volleyball sized court on a gym floor with goals at either end spanning the entire back line, two teams of three players compete by throwing a ball along the floor and into the opposite team\u2019s goal.\u00a0 The opposing team attempts to physically block the ball from crossing the goal line. Because players can have different levels of vision, all participants are blindfolded to create a level playing field as they listen for the goalball, which has bells in it.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mason Smith and Tarah Sawler are the first two Nova Scotians ever to make the Canadian junior goalball national boys and girls teams.\u00a0 They will represent Canada at the International Blind Sports Association’s (IBSA) World Youth Games in Colorado Springs, Colorado from July 28th to the 31st. Tarah, 16 years old from Dartmouth, led the … Continue reading Nova Scotia athletes make Junior Goalball National teams<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blindsportsnovascotia.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blindsportsnovascotia.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blindsportsnovascotia.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blindsportsnovascotia.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blindsportsnovascotia.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=156"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.blindsportsnovascotia.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":159,"href":"https:\/\/www.blindsportsnovascotia.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156\/revisions\/159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blindsportsnovascotia.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blindsportsnovascotia.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blindsportsnovascotia.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}