Lucas Punkari
Fort Frances will be well-represented at this weekend’s Ontario Winter Games, with local squashers and volleyball players competing for Northwestern Ontario in Collingwood.
In the volleyball ranks, four members from this year’s Muskie junior girls’ squad—Erika Cochrane, Sierra Cousineau, Cassandra Moffitt, and Carly Taggart—will be teaming up with players from Dryden, Kenora, and Rainy River.
Having tried out for the regional team here during the last weekend of January, the four feel their time spent with both the Muskie and the Fort Frances Vipers programs helped them to make it to the Winter Games.
“Being involved with both teams has helped us out a lot,” Cousineau noted.
“At the start of the season, practising four days a week for the Muskies seemed like an awful lot,” she added.
“But as we started to get better and better, our confidence also started to improve.”
“We’ve also learned a lot of new skills, as well, and those are really starting to pay off now,” said Moffitt.
The Northwestern Ontario team has gotten together a couple of times since the tryouts. And even though they may not have a huge height advantage (to which Moffitt joked that she was able to crack the roster to help out with that need), the players feel they should be a strong squad.
“I think we’ll do pretty good at the game,” Cousineau remarked.
“We’ve learned quite a lot in the times that we have practised together, and I think that should bode well for us,” she reasoned.
“We also just want to go there and represent Fort Frances well, and show how well our region can do in this tournament,” Cochrane added.
Meanwhile, six members of the Sunset Country Squash Club also will be in Collingwood, with Shawn Brady, Sara Coish, Marita Mattais, Naomi McManaman, Angel McCormack, and Anniss Seid representing Northwestern Ontario at the event.
Instead of the usual individual format at most tournaments they compete in, the Winter Games is a unique team competition so the entire squad will be behind the glass cheering on their teammates.
“You have to depend a lot on what your teammates do while your there,” McCormack explained.
“You have people from out-of-town that you are teamed up with, and you have to get used to how they play and approach things, along with whatever you are doing,” she noted.
“You also need to make sure that you keep yourself confident out on the court,” stressed Brady.
“If you get down on yourself, you are going to get killed out there and you will end up losing, for sure.
“But if you are able to keep that confidence level high all tournament long, you will get better with every game that you are in,” he reasoned.
Both the squash and volleyball teams will begin play Friday in Collingwood.
