Imagine playing a game of volleyball. There are six players on a team: starters, blockers, and passers and so on, who are working together to serve that perfect ball that will outplay the opposition.
Now imagine doing all of that, but sitting down.
For warrant officer and Ottawa Centre resident Karen McCoy, it’s not just something she imagines. It something she does and she has her eyes set on the 2012 Paralympic Games in London.
Karen McCoy is a starter for the Team Canada’s sitting volleyball squad. But, in order to qualify for the Paralympic Games, she and her team must win against Brazil in a game this fall.
“We have to beat Brazil,” said McCoy. “That’s all we need to do.”
McCoy, who is in her 31st year with the military, lost her right leg below the knee after a battle with cancer.
In order to stay with the military, which she said she was determined to do, she had to stay fit. So she got involved with sitting volleyball.
While the moves and functions are sitting volleyball players are the same, the sport itself is faster, she said.
“Your first thought has to be to move . . . move to the ball and then play the ball,” she said. “With standing (volleyball) you just play the ball because your legs automatically take you (to it).”
McCoy was one of Canada’s 50 top athletes with a disability who attended the Canadian Paralympic Committee’s Excellence Series held at Carleton University. This four-day seminar brings together athletes such as McCoy with over 130 aspiring paralympians.
The event’s purpose is two-fold, said executive director of sport Rob Needham, to share best practices from veterans with young up-and-coming athletes and build a sense of Team Canada.
“It’s nice (for aspiring paralympians) to see some of the other leaders and learn and interact with them,” he said.
“The perception is that we don’t train as hard, that it’s easy or handed to us,” said McCoy about misconceptions about paralympic athletes.
“I feel we work harder – we have to work harder,” she said. “We have a disability that we need to overcome and we still have to do the race.”
Needham said that the Vancouver 2010 games helped to increase awareness of the talent of Canada’s paralympic athletes and events like the Excellence Series, he said, will help the CPC reach their goal.
“Our goal is to be in the top eight countries,” he said.
With more than 140 to 150 countries competing in summer games, he said that’s a challenging goal, but remains confident.
“We have the athletes, and coaches and groups to get there,” he said.
As for McCoy, while she has not yet won an medal in the Paralympics, she’s not a stranger to the atmosphere.
During the 2010 Paralympic Games in Vancouver, McCoy raised the CPC’s flag on behalf of Team Canada’s paralympians.
“Walking out in front of all of those people and the world and knowing that someday I may be one of those athletes on the floor, “she said, “it was awe-inspiring.”
See Karen McCoy in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7O-Wj3VLDk