Deaf and hard-of-hearing hockey players will showcase their skills in Vaughan this weekend in the hope of landing a spot on the Canadian Deaflympic team.  The squad hosts an assessment camp Oct. 15 to 17 at The Sports Village arenas (2600 Rutherford Rd.).  Players aged 17 and up with experience from the Junior B to university level are invited to  compete for one of 23 spots on the roster.  They must be either deaf or hard of hearing, which is defined as hearing loss of at least 55 decibels in the better ear.

“The expectations that I will be placing from day one until the end of the assessment camp is that we will be operating the program as a very professional program,” coach Donald McKee said. “They’ll be treated like professionals and our expectation is that they’ll perform like professionals.”

Roy Hysen, executive team director, said newcomers will have to battle hard to break onto the squad.  “I’ve been doing this for 30 years...

...so I know the players will find it a tough challenge, especially the new players, knowing these veterans will fight to have a spot on the team,” he said. “The rookies usually carry the torch later in their career with our team.”

The final roster is expected to be announced about 10 days after tryouts wrap up.

“We’ll come up with three categories,” Mr. McKee said. “We’ll have those players that we know we definitely want to take on the team to Slovakia. We will want a list of players that we want to still consider for going to Slovakia, depending on injuries to other players and players that, for some reason, we lose during that time period.

“Then the last will be a group that we feel we’ll let them know if we think they have a short or long-term future with regards to the program for the deaf.”
Players who don’t land in one of those three categories will still benefit from coming out, he added.

“The assessment not only helps for this year, it helps in two years for the world championships and ongoing because there is a high retention, so far, of players,” Mr. McKee said. “Once they start in the program, they usually will stay in it for five of six years minimum and lots of people stay in for 10.”

Those who make the cut will compete in the 17th Winter Deaflympic Games, which takes place in  Vysoké Tatry, Slovakia from Feb. 18 to 26, 2011.  Canada’s team has performed well on the international stage in the past two decades — with silver medals at the first world championships in 2009 and the 2007 Deaflympics as well as gold at the 2003 Games — so expectations are high. But the squad will be facing some stiff competition in 2011.

“This is a very critical assessment time period because the expectation that was passed on to myself as coach is that the management and the board of directors definitely felt that we should be looking for a gold medal when we go and compete in Slovakia in this tournament,” Mr. McKee said.

“In the past 18 years, we’ve won two golds, two silvers and bronze,” Mr. Hysen added. “We’re still a top-three contender (but) USA, Russia and Finland are tough teams to beat.”

Those interested in trying out for the Canadian Deaflympic Hockey Team can contact Mr. Hysen at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .