Today myFM is celebrating local coaches and the impact they’ve had on the St. Thomas-Elgin Community with our Hooray for Coaches Day feature, presented by Kenny Insurance Brokers.
The title of the Academy Award-nominated documentary Murderball gives you a sense of the intensity involved in wheelchair rugby.
Dorchester native Dave Willsie can attest to that with his gnarled fingers, the result of years of jarring collisions sustained representing Canada five times at the Paralympic Games.
Willsie fell in love with the high-intensity game in 1997 after suffering a life-altering injury during a recreational hockey game two years earlier.
For those unfamiliar with the sport, here’s Willsie’s thumbnail description.
He joined the London Annihilators in 1997 and made the Ontario provincial team the following year, a team he now coaches.
He qualified for the Canadian National Wheelchair Rugby team and made his Paralympic Games debut in 2000.
He competed for Canada in the Paralympic Games again in 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016. He retired from competition after those last games and was named assistant coach of the national team.
He stepped down from the national team to concentrate his efforts on Team Ontario and the London Annihilators.
After close to three decades of playing and coaching, Willsie insists the fun aspect remains.
One of the challenges in coaching, according to Willsie, is dealing with player confidence or the lack of it in some cases.
Willsie was the recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and he, along with Garrett Hickling, became the first-ever rugby players to have their jerseys retired by the Canadian Wheelchair Sports Association.
You can hear an extended version of the Dave Willsie interview below.
