Darnley bound for Norway

If all goes according to Sheena Darnley’s plan, she’ll be a member of Canada’s first-ever women’s Paralympic hockey team, hopefully in 2030. 

But for now, the 17-year-old Grade 12 Notre Dame College School student’s eyes are focused on the upcoming Women’s World Challenge Para Hockey tournament in Skien, Norway, Oct. 25-28. Darnley is part of Canada’s National Women’s Para Hockey (sometimes known as sledge hockey) Team, including her Niagara Thunderblades teammate Jessie Gregory, who will compete at the event against women’s para hockey players around the world. 

Darnley was born with Lumbo Sacral Agenesis, a rare condition that resulted in her spine not developing below her lumbar region. She walks with quad-canes and also uses a wheelchair. But that hasn’t deterred her love of sports. Sheena was nine when she first tried out for the Cruisers junior para hockey team in Mississauga, where her family lived before moving to Niagara, and she fell in love with the sport.

“I really, really enjoyed it,” said Darnley, sitting in Principal Andrew Boon’s office on a sunny September afternoon. “Even then, I was very passionate about it, and I was fortunate to have a lot of really great coaches who encouraged me to keep going.”

After moving to Niagara, Darnley joined the Thunderblades, a co-ed adult para hockey team three years ago. “They recognized my ability and so they made an exception so I can play,” she said. 

With the Women’s National Team members spread across Canada, it’s not easy to get together to practice, so in addition to playing with the Thunderblades, Darnley’s parents make sure she gets ice time as often as possible so the forward can work on her skills.

“My parents try to book as much ice time as possible for me,” said Sheena, who practices out of the Vale Centre in Port Colborne. Still, it’s not the same as playing together before a world event, but the team is determined to show its strength in Norway.

Darnley was part of Canada’s silver medal team at the Women’s World Challenge in Green Bay last year, and looks forward to this year’s event and hopefully denying Team USA’s quest for a three-peat of winning gold.

“It’s Canada, the US (our biggest rival), and then teams from different countries, or sometimes regions,” she said, describing the tournament. “Some of the smaller countries, they might play together as a team, like Team Europe or Team Asia, because they don’t have as many players or the funding.”

On the subject of funding, Darnley said the national team was days away from travelling to Calgary for a pre-tournament training session for the Women’s World Challenge when they learned that Hockey Canada had pulled the team’s funding. The group training session quickly became an online one, with players working on their skills individually in their home communities.

It’s disheartening, she said, because women’s hockey has such a high profile in Canada, and men’s para hockey is funded, but it’s a struggle to get the same recognition for the women’s national para hockey team.

“Canada supports it, just not Hockey Canada,” she said. That means each player is responsible for raising or paying $1,500 towards the estimated $40,000 cost of the trip. 

“We’re at about $27,000 right now, and we leave for Norway October 19,” Darnley said. “So I hope we can get what we need.”

At the school level, Boon said the Notre Dame family will be cheering Darnley and Team Canada on during the tournament.

“Obviously, we’re super proud of Sheena,” he said. “It’s a massive accomplishment to reach the national level in any sport, and we are thrilled that she’s had this level of success.”

What’s next? She hopes to attend Brock University to study accounting next year, then do her graduate studies in Calgary, which is Canada’s epicentre of para sport training. 

And after that? There are high hopes that women’s para hockey will find place on the 2030 Winter Para Olympics schedule, and Sheena hopes she’ll be part of the team finding a place on the podium. One game at a time. 

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