Shelburne ball hockey player selected for U16 national team

Written By Brian Lockhart

A local ball hockey player has been selected to be on the U16 Team Canada Ball Hockey Team and will represent the nation at the 2022 ISBHF World Ball Hockey Championships in Zilina, Slovakia this summer.

Jackson Davis made the team when he was asked to try out for the squad after impressing coaches and scouts when he played on his team with the New Tec Ball Hockey club based in Alliston.

At 14 years of age, Jackson was encouraged to ‘play up' a division at the U16 level when his coaches noted his ability during games.

Already an ice hockey player from a young age, Jackson started playing ball hockey in Shelburne with the Shelburne Shooters to fill the sports void in his life during the summer months.

He is currently a member of the Shelburne Wolves U15 rep team when on the ice.

“Once I started playing, I would get bored during the summer without hockey so I looked up some of my options and saw that ball hockey was an option so I started playing ball hockey,” Jackson explained. “It's different but similar at the same time. I really enjoy hockey - when I picked up ball hockey it still has some of the same aspects so I really enjoy it.”

He played with the Shelburne Shooters for several seasons. When the Shooters club closed temporarily due to COVID-19 concerns, Jackson and several other local players explored other possibilities. They found that the ball hockey club in Alliston was still running and decided to sign up.

Jackson said he found the Alliston club to be ‘more competitive' due to the larger number of players and teams.

“I was lucky enough to win some sort of championship both years that I played in New Tec, either as a Peewee or Bantam player,” Jackson said. “Near the end of the summer I switched up to the older division. Me and two of my buddies played up a level.”

Tryouts for the national team took place at the old Alliston Memorial Arena in the fall.

“The tryouts were pretty cool,” Jackson said. “I thought it would be multiple days but it was just one day. It was from 8:00 a.m. – they started by stretching us and getting us warmed up. We did some practice for about an hour and a-half and we did some drills. Then we split up into teams and played a game. It took about six hours.”

The final team roster was announced on December 20.

Jackson and the team will first travel to Austria in June for the training camp to get ready for the tournament in Slovakia.

Ball hockey is a huge sport in Eastern Europe with thousands of fans turning out for games.

The 2022 World Junior U16 championships will get underway during the first week of July.