Connecting on the ice and pitch with Sportability BC

Adaptive sports are expanding in B.C. In this podcast, we connect with Jade Werger from Sportability BC and what they are doing to improve the lives of people with disabilities. 

 

TRANSCRIPT

Connecting on the Ice and Pitch with SportAbility BC

 

00:06

Hello and welcome to DDA's Encouraging Abilities podcast. I am your host, Evan Kelly, communications manager for Developmental Disabilities Association. Now we've been doing a lot of podcasts on inclusion and accessibility, so today my guest is Jade Werger with SportAbility. This is the first in a series of accessible sports-related podcasts. Now I met Jade at DDA's Leisure Fair in Vancouver a couple of weeks ago, and we had finally got the fair up and running after...

 

00:31

A couple years due to COVID of course was shut down and there were roughly 25 organizations taking part. It was great to see how many options the people with disabilities have now to get moving and staying healthy. All sorts of adaptive sports and inclusive programs are happening in BC these days. Sportability is one of those organizations. Now Jade joined Sportability team in February 2017 as the sport development coordinator. She graduated from Castle...

 

01:01

University in 2013 with a BA in Health Psychology and a minor in Fitness and Sport Science. While attending Castleton, Jade was a member of the Women's Varsity Hockey Team as she holds a master's degree in Kinesiology from UBC where her thesis focused on hockey official penalty decision making. So thanks for joining me today Jade. Yeah thanks for having me Evan. Now this is really curious to me. I grew up playing hockey so I, your thesis is interesting.

 

01:31

hockey penalty decision-making. Can you tell me a bit about that thesis? It sounds interesting. Yeah, so, so kind of, you know, as you mentioned in my introduction there, with my degree, my undergraduate degree in health psychology and fitness and sports science, my interest really lies in sports psychology. So when I was going to UBC and doing my thesis and thinking about, you know, what areas I might want to focus research on,

 

02:00

That's where looking at the cognitive effects on hockey official referees and their penalty decision-making kinda came about and looking at more of the psychological effects on how that could affect their decisions on ice and the games overall. So without getting into too much detail, basically, I recruited local minor hockey officials in

 

02:27

lower mainland of BC and I had experienced officials involved as well who essentially, you know, I used the minor hockey officials to collect live footage of minor hockey games using GoPros on their helmets because I wanted to use this as part of my research to look at these effects to help with referee training and at the minor hockey level. And so a lot of the research

 

02:56

that they use to help train referees, but it's from a spectator's view or a bird's-eye view, which isn't as realistic as having something on someone's helmet where, you know, that's what they're going to see on the ice. So collective videos that way, and then had my experience officials, after I went through video clips and edited pieces where there could potentially be penalty calls, I had the experience officials evaluate watching those clips, whether they were penalties or not.

 

03:25

and that was basically my answer key. And then I used minor hockey officials to then look at those videos and make their call and had that in different video sequence conditions. So basically there was four sequences where they would see. So one would be as if you're watching a game all the way through with information of that game. So the, what you might see on a score clock available.

 

03:53

And then I had that same condition without that information available. And then the other two conditions were randomized with or without information. And really what I was looking for was if game information was going to potentially influence their decision making. So say the home team's up three to one and there's a penalty against that home team. Are we going to see any differences with what they might be watching? And then I also used a.

 

04:21

a existing um... stress questionnaire for officials to uh... that really about you know they was just a questionnaire or it was you know how stressful do you uh... find verbal abuse from coaches and they would read it on on the scale you know i i just find it interesting because i i i uh... did play hockey growing up and i did it the referee for two years uh... was you know you're much much younger probably around the age of sixteen and you know talking about stressors of

 

04:50

you know, parents and coaches yelling at somebody that's that goes into how you might end up officiating your game. Yeah, and obviously, you know, as you mentioned, I have played hockey for most of my life and was fortunate to play in college. And so that's where looking at officials in that sport kind of drew that interest. And I had a bit of a machine and coaching experience as well within hockey. So, yeah, so definitely interesting. You know.

 

05:20

stuff to look at and, and we'll have lots of sports euphemisms. So that tees it up for this. Tell me a little bit about sportability. Yeah, so sportability in a nutshell is a disability sport organization for British Colombians with physical disabilities. So we oversee we're a multi sport organization. So we oversee para hockey or what's better known as sledge hockey, bacha, power chair soccer and para soccer. So we

 

05:49

really our goal is to provide access to sport for persons with disabilities in bc and uh... and that's anywhere from starting out and getting involved at the grassroot level uh... all the way through to high performance so trying to provide those opportunities for different sport pathways uh... so people can participate uh... where where they bet you know where they feel most comfortable now you've got uh... a huge background in sports

 

06:16

you education in sports what got you interested in working for this particular organization yellow i a aside from hockey uh... like on a personal uh... standpoint i crook plane uh... lacrosse it with another one that uh... was kinda keep me in shape for the summer as i got more competitive with hockey and uh... i enjoyed golfing skiing uh... really just being active in now in my adult life just kind of active for life

 

06:45

play, I think, four or five different sports. Some more, some like golf, you know, where it's just in and out, you know, just kind of here and there. And then there's really four sports that I play to in the winter too, in the spring, summer, that are team sports and stuff. So yeah, just personal that way. And then, you know, my education interests there. And then I briefly mentioned, you know, I was involved in rafting and I was coaching

 

07:15

U18 girls rep team when I was finishing my math or doing my master's as well. So kind of that coaching side and really when it was nearing the end of my master's degree I was on a contract student position with Pacific sport Fraser Valley. So my job there was a physical literacy coordinator. So I was doing a lot of general just physical literacy or fundamental movement skills and

 

07:44

really just getting kids active. So whether that was through sport or recreation with Pacific sport. And then as I was nearing the end of my masters and that contract was kind of timing with that, I was looking to get into a full-time career and in the sport field and just looking for that job. There was a position with sport ability at the time for full-time positions. So

 

08:11

Yeah, just interviewed there and, you know, here I am today, I guess six years later it worked out. So yeah, that's how I got involved in that. So as it has, you know, being involved with athletes with disabilities, that has that opened up your your eyes and your mind a little bit in terms of sport? Yeah, yeah. So and that was something I, you know, I've had this conversation with other people, you know, they've asked how I got involved or what kind of

 

08:39

drove me to adaptive sport or working with persons with disabilities. And I guess when I applied, you know, I wasn't really thinking too much of whether it's mainstream sport or, you know, a different avenue with adaptive sport that would be new. And I had a bit of education, you know, maybe a class or two where we talked about, you know, human growth and development and we would touch on different things of...

 

09:05

uh... disabilities and things like that but it wasn't a primary focus like say somebody in recreational therapy for me uh... so yeah it was it was really new in terms of who i was serving in who i was working with uh... coming into sport ability but really you know not to sound cliche or anything but it really is uh... and you you just adapted

 

09:34

Yeah, so I mean, I just really learned, I guess, along the way in terms of just from, you know, athletes that I work with themselves or coaches about, you know, maybe the different adaptions or maybe understanding their disabilities a little bit more. But yeah, I mean, even today, it's not a, I go and it's not a primary thing I'm focused on of what's this person's disability. You do obviously it's important to know and acknowledge because

 

10:03

that's helpful information to know, but I mean, typically I just ask the individual, you know, as an example, like, how are you most comfortable transferring from your chair to the sled? I'm not going to tell you how to do that, you know, you know your body the best. I think it's, you know, and that can be different for everybody, even if they do have a similar disability than someone else, it still could be very different. So, yeah,

 

10:33

I'm not afraid to ask somebody a question. Obviously I'm trying to be respectful and understand what works best for them because I want them to have the best experience. So yeah, that's kind of been my approach of really just being open to learning and yeah, really just chatting with people and getting to know them and seeing where they're comfortable in terms of if there are certain...

 

11:00

adaptions we have to make to say like equipment's the biggest part where we have to make different adaptions. Even, even if it is adaptive equipment, you know, like I said, everybody's different. Sometimes we need to figure out a way to even make that that work for different individuals as well. Of course, that's not a one size fits all kind of thing. Yeah. So, the sport ability, I know you facilitate, you know,

 

11:27

soccer and hockey. Do you actually train athletes in these vocations if you will? Like have you got training programs? Yeah, so the way we kind of touch on all different areas. So programs, so something like a weekly program, we try and like depending on the sport there are different programs across the province in different locations and that's really

 

11:56

where there's the resources and the partnerships that we work with because we're, you know, we're located in Vancouver, we're a small organization, there can't, we can't be everywhere at once. So really building relationships for coaches or community partners and facilities to get things, you know, up and running and happening on a regular basis so people can access these types of programs.

 

12:24

That's a huge thing with us and volunteers and everything. So that's kind of the program side of things. And then in terms of, you know, I touched on the different pathways. So say somebody trying to progress to a competitive stream, that's where we'll find typically, well, everyone really the volunteers is the coaches and stuff. Typically at the high performance level,

 

12:53

those coaches, I mean, at least right now, have some sort of connection to that sport. So whether they're a family member or they've worked with us before, say as a summer student or something that have just really been interested and wanna support and help out, that's really at the high performance level of where those people come into place and officials and everything.

 

13:20

But we also offer training camps throughout the year to really kind of a mix of two things. One, to whether it might be helping maybe gain more interest in the community. That's a new program. Us being there trying to build up and help those leaders who've said they'll support, but they need a bit more training or resources or just opportunity to connect with us and our athletes that have been playing a while. That's always a helpful thing.

 

13:49

We'll hold those camps for that, for recruitment, and then also just the high performance side of things. So say a provincial team, they'll have private camps that will be for their training to help them, you know, train for their competition that we go into. So with the high performance teams, that's typically a Canadian national championship that they train for throughout the year to then compete against other provinces.

 

14:18

at the end of the season. Now, I've got a son who plays soccer and, you know, growing up finding coaches, you know, even sometimes finding officials for, you know, typically developed kids is sometimes difficult. Do you is it is it easy to find coaches to come in? And that said, are these specialized coaches as well? Yeah, so I guess it would it would.

 

14:45

I wouldn't say easy. I mean, you're asking volunteers to commit quite a bit of their time. It's really hit or miss, I think, depending on the situation, the sports. And yeah, so what that looks like. So as an example for a situation, so we have community coaches. So people that are volunteers that run a weekly program.

 

15:14

you know, in Vancouver, say. Those volunteers are, the way that I've kind of connected with them is really through things like Volunteer Connector, connecting with university programs, so say UBC-KIN or UFB-KIN, and yeah, just really, and even partners there. So we have some teachers that we've connected with to do.

 

15:42

you know, information talks for their adapted sport class that then we're speaking to the students that can help, that might be interested in getting volunteer hours or getting involved to help, you know, maybe their goal is physiotherapy down the road. And even things like that Sunset Community Center that we met at for the Disability Association there.

 

16:06

um you know that's a way for us to get visible and and be open to recruiting volunteers and or participants so a ton of our volunteers are are just people that you know are looking for opportunities to volunteer and then they really learn um we mentor them and provide them resources and training to talk about the sports and working with uh persons with disabilities um

 

16:32

But people that are involved more at the high performance level typically tend to be volunteers that have another connection. So whether they're a family member of one of the athletes or like our provincial botchia coach, she used to be a former employee with us and, you know, really took to botchia and had that knowledge when she worked with us and was interested in coaching. So, yeah, so it all kind of varies.

 

17:01

The community partners, you know, I mentioned are huge with getting programs going. So an example of where we have those is in Prince George, the Northern Adapted Sport Association. They oversee para hockey there and they also oversee other adapted sports like basketball and things like that. And then in Kamloops, Kamloops Adapted Sport Association was involved with us in beginning with the Kamloops.

 

17:30

Parahockey program, but also Pacific Sport Interior has been a partner there. So yeah, it really varies on, I think the situation, the program support and then the event support and the high performance team support. So yeah, and then in terms of officials, it's same thing we kind of do with our community coach call outs.

 

17:59

when we put on volunteer connector or reach out to universities and different things, we'll use to put out there when we're looking for to host a referee clinic for one of our sports. And then just hope people sign up and mentor them and stick around. But even in, even we found with, as example, with our botcha referees, they're the ones that typically

 

18:27

stick with it and are really helpful for somebody that's had a connection to the sport somehow. So it really seems to be that tight-knit community. That's great. Now, sportability, like in the drop-down on your website, you offer a few different sports. You've got power soccer, you've got the sledge hockey, the boccia, which you've...

 

18:50

I'm not sure if I'm saying that correctly. Is those those are the sports that you focus on or is there like more to it? Yeah, so we have four sports. So I think para soccer is back up on our website. So yeah, so para hockey or sledge hockey, I could give a brief description of each sport just for the listeners. If you call power soccer, what do you mean by power soccer?

 

19:18

Yeah, so power soccer is power wheelchair soccer. So it's a form of soccer used by power wheelchair users. So we play typically in a gym with an oversized soccer ball that's about 13 inches. And on the front of each person's power chair, they use a what we call a guard. So it's either a plastic or metal essentially kind of bumper that we attach onto the front of their chair and they're, they're able to use that to

 

19:48

kick the soccer ball and the soccer ball is larger, partially for visibility just if you were sitting in a power chair using it so you can see it in front of you, but also just so it doesn't get stuck under the guard or under the chair, you know, to then wedge there. So in power soccer at a game, there's usually a goalie on each team. So you set up nets with the large cones in the gym.

 

20:15

And then there's three players each on the floor. So four for each team total. And you just, yeah, the goal is a lot of very similar rules to mainstream soccer, but yeah, really just trying to get the ball in the net to score goals and win. And there's some different rules within that in terms of two on ones and being in the crease and things like that. And power soccer.

 

20:43

isn't yet a Paralympic sport, but it is a World Cup sport. Oh, it sounds that sounds great. I mean, I actually it actually sounds fun. Yeah, it's very cool to watch. And even in power soccer, there is a specific sport chair that can be bought and used for power soccer that basically is more agile quick. So it allows for more power when kicking the ball and things like that versus a everyday chair.

 

21:12

Now for sledge hockey, we're Canadian, we like hockey. Are the rules primarily the same? Yeah, very much so. So it's really all the same rules as standup hockey. There's a couple of different penalties. So there is one called stabbing, which is what it is, sounds like. Because yeah, in para hockey, there's to...

 

21:40

push yourself on the ice, you have two, essentially two small hockey sticks that have, you know, the curved blade on the end to shoot and pass, but on the other end are ice picks. And that's what you use to push yourself on the ice. So you, if you've got a stabbing penalty, that would be using your stick to stab an opponent. You know, hopefully people don't do that. I guess that's kind of like slashing in it. Yeah, yeah. But that sounds more painful. A little bit more, it would be a major.

 

22:08

And then there's also a penalty called T-boning. So that would be when you use the front of your sled to ram or run into another person's sled from the side, front, back. I would call it something similar to like a check from behind. It's a dangerous play. You're not to use your sled as a bumper car as a weapon, right, to hurt because they're steel.

 

22:33

So if you got hit in the side of the leg with that at a pretty decent speed, that wouldn't be great. But yeah, everything else in terms of the rules are the same. Different things that kind of come up are like to call an offside, you would call that based on where the blades cross the blue line, because depending on the individual, so say there's somebody that has a double leg amputee, they would have a shorter sled nose, like where their nose is on the sled,

 

23:03

um you know maybe plays that have spina bifida say um that their sled's longer um has any of that room for their legs that um yeah calling an offside you would call it by the blades versus the the nose of the sled um so yeah so a couple different things but um yeah I mean if you watched a game it wouldn't be anything

 

23:26

different than you watching, you know, mainstream hockey games. Now officiating for sledge hockey, are the officials have to be in one of those devices as well or can they just be typically developed or someone who doesn't have a disability? Yeah, so yeah that's a good question. So I've only seen stand-up officials in para hockey, so officials that, you know, use

 

23:55

skates on their feet and officiate it. It's helpful in terms of, I think, one, seeing the play, because you're able to look down, since everybody's sitting in the floods. And also, just if, I think if there was an injury or if you need to get somebody out of a scrum or whatever, getting in there is a bit easier than if you were using a flood. And same with dropping the puck and things like that. But I...

 

24:25

I yeah, like I said, I've never seen somebody officiate in a sled, but I'm sure it went, you know, if that opportunity came up, it would definitely be up for discussion, I'm sure. You know, depending what level it was, it was taking place at. Sure. Now you've got you've got bocce ball and what other sports? And para soccer. Para soccer and power soccer are two different things, are they? Yeah, correct. So para soccer is a is a version of stand up soccer.

 

24:54

So it was, I think it was originally called Seven of Side Soccer, but they've changed it to Parasoccer. But essentially it's shorter fields, smaller nets, and it's really a game that was developed for people that might have say a low level of CP, so they're ambulatory, but maybe their gate or their energy is affected because of their disability that playing in mainstream soccer would be challenging.

 

25:22

or somebody with a brain injury, things like that. So yeah, so it's nice to have because I often find chatting with people, they're people that have disabilities where they're often told they might not be disabled enough or, you know, or there might be, you know, it's not completely visible to.

 

25:50

to everybody. So it's nice to have a sport where it's essentially made for that group of people because often other adapted sports that might be something where you know they might not be what we call classifiable in that sport if they wanted to say compete at a high level or again in mainstream sport it's challenging because their disability is affecting you know

 

26:20

really being able to enjoy it and keep up and have fun, right? So yeah, so that's where para soccer is, in my mind, is a very niche group. And I love, you know, with soccer being such a huge sport really around the world, it's, I'm glad to see that there's an option there for everybody.

 

26:40

Yeah, you know, with the power soccer and yeah, so and everything to use. So are your services primarily for people with physical disabilities or are there athletes with developmental disabilities as well? Yeah, so our mandate and our really who we serve is is persons with physical disabilities. But we have had athletes that they might have a dual diagnosis. So developmental and physical disability. And really.

 

27:09

a program level, so community weekly, everyday program, if somebody with developmental disability wanted to come and play, we're not going to turn them away. But if that person was looking to get into high performance, that's where the classification starts to come in, where they have to meet a criteria essentially to participate at that level.

 

27:37

And then also just looking at, because this is a question I get quite often from people, you know, looking to get involved in sport is something, a tool that I have is, you know, knowing about other sport organizations for persons with developmental disabilities as well. Because I'll get asked often, you know, well, is my child able to participate in the sport and, you know, what would be the best way?

 

28:05

other organizations that focus on persons with developmental disabilities, it's nice to have and being able to provide people with those spaces because ultimately they're going to have a better experience with that focus to help with their needs as well. So yeah, so there's a reason all these different organizations exist, right? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so we, like I said, like we don't...

 

28:35

turn people away at a community level or even say a local event if we're having like a fun tournament or something. But as you know if somebody was looking to progress in sport there are there's a classification system at that level where people are assessed and part of that assessment is their disability. Now how have you seen this sort of sector grow over the past few years?

 

29:02

Yeah, it's why I mean, we had the COVID break there. So that was a bit weird. But the last couple years, you know, it's been great to see people back out. I think I would like to be optimistic and think that the world is becoming more aware of ableism and just being more aware of, you know, considering everybody when say building something or in, you know, hosting an event.

 

29:32

you know, I feel like I've noticed it in certain situations. But yeah, there's still a ton of work to do. I mean, even like the Paralympics, I think it was, this was probably maybe only the second year or so that even Paralympic sports were televised. You know, so it's that that tells you something in terms of where we're headed in a positive way. But it also just kind of shows how

 

30:02

um some stuff is too right so yeah now in export ability has the their four core sports are you planning on expanding that at all I know where where we're pretty busy what we got I'm we actually and before my time we actually still receive a lot of I think there's about seven or eight sports my colleague he's our executive director I'm you know quite a few years ago was in my position and yeah I don't know how he

 

30:30

oversaw so many sports. But yeah, what it really comes down to is, because we're a non-profit, is the funding, right? So if we have too many sports under our mandate, we have to split up that funding even more so, and then are we able to deliver in an effective way? Yeah, good point. So it's kind of that balance as well of, you know, what's in our capacity.

 

30:59

And that's capacity staff wise or funding wise and everything because we want, you know, we want to be able to offer good services, right? So. Yeah. So where does, where does SportAbility get its funding? So majority of our funding is through government grants. So ViaSport is our sports sector leader. So basically how that works is they receive funding for sports for BC from the government.

 

31:28

We provide like we as a sports association amongst every other sport organization in BC provide you know feedback on where we would like to put funding where we see needs and you know they communicate that with the government because they have their say as well and then really they develop these grants based on all that information and feedback where we can apply for things.

 

31:55

and be able to deliver on that. So that's majority of our funding. And then we look at other different types of funding. Like I think different banks have some grants that come out. We have our national sport organizations that provide that sport specific funding for us to apply for for different projects. And then also, you know, fundraising and

 

32:23

Yeah, really looking at different ways to diversify funding is something that's, you know, kind of ongoing. Because you never really guaranteed anything. Yeah, exactly. You always have to apply for it, right? So yeah, and it's good to mix things up a bit and have different resources. And really, again, it goes back to even just building, you know, strong relationships, even to have something sustainable moving forward as well. Absolutely. So last and final question, how do people get in touch with you for more information?

 

32:52

Yeah, so best way to get in touch with me is through email and that would be my first name, Jade, J-A-D-E, last name, Werger, W-E-R-G-E-R, at sportabilitybc.ca. They can also check out our website just to kind of learn more information and maybe see where active programs are and just learn about our different sports and that's on our website at sportabilitybc.ca.

 

33:21

And then we also have our telephone number, which, the phone number off the top of my head is 604-324-1411. And that just goes to our office. But yeah, usually email is a best way to reach me at, to kind of in and out quite a bit. Well, that's great. I think that about wraps it up, Jade. I think we've covered all the little facets of sportability. So thank you very much for joining me today.

 

33:47

Yeah, thank you. And yeah, I encourage people if you don't see anything on our website or you didn't hear anything today that you had questions about, to please contact me. Even if there's not a existing program, say in your community, it's something we're always looking to expand and offer just so more people can have access. Fantastic.

 

34:09

You have been listening to DDA's Encouraging Abilities podcast. Our guest today has been Jade Werger, the Sport Development Coordinator for SportAbility BC. Stay tuned for parts two and three of our Adaptive Sports series. I am your host, Evan Kelly. Thanks for listening.