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Jessie Gregory

The tournament will take place May 16 to 19 at the Vale Health and Wellness Centre in Port Colborne

Jessie Gregory is a mother, a school bus driver and a member of multiple sporting organizations, but from May 16 to 19, she will be focused on one thing — stopping pucks for Team Ontario.

The South Niagara resident will be representing the province at the National Para Hockey Championships, taking place at the Vale Health and Wellness Centre in Port Colborne. Also a member of the local Niagara Thunderblades para ice hockey team, the Vale Centre is Gegory’s home ice. Now, with the members of Team Ontario by her side, she will be close to home for her first national tournament since giving birth to her son in 2022.

“It’s usually in Alberta or Quebec,” she said of the championships. “But it’s 15 minutes from my house. So, my family and my kids are going to come. It’s pretty exciting.” 

The last time the tournament was held in Ontario was in 2019, when it was hosted in Elmira.

The tournament will welcome more than 100 athletes from across Canada, who will compete for the competition’s title over four days and 18 games.

Para ice hockey, formerly called sledge hockey, is a Paralympic sport, typically played by those with a lower-body disability. Using a double-bladed sledge and two modified hockey sticks, three 15-minute periods are played.

The Thunderblades moved rink facilities to the Vale Health and Wellness Centre when the building opened in 2013, and it was designed with accessibility for the players in mind. Gregory believes it is the perfect location for the tournament.

“Everyone at the Vale Centre is awesome. It has a great atmosphere, and the rink staff are very supportive,” she said. 

The 39-year-old mother of two said South Niagara has always been a supportive community. 

“Everyone comes together to help if you need it,” she said.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Vale Health and Wellness Centre offered a learn-to-sledge program that Gregory served as a mentor in.

“I loved it,” she said. “It was mostly able-bodied people coming through, and it’s really cool that other people want to come and try our sport, even if they’re not going to play regularly.”

Gregory said that some of the participants with physical limitations who took part in the program are still playing para ice hockey today, and she hopes to see many of them at the tournament.

“Because it's in Ontario, a lot of people I've looked up to and worked with in the sport are going to be there,” she said.

Over the course of this year’s national championships, almost 1,000 local students will be attending the games, in addition to many expected fans.

Thanks to her day job and her position coaching the Wainfleet Mastodon T-Ball team, Gregory is an integral part of the community and is excited to share her experience on the ice with local students.

“It’s the people that are awesome. When the kids come to watch us, they say ‘oh my gosh! There’s sledge hockey here!’ which is pretty cool, because not a lot of rinks have it,” she said.

Gregory and the rest of Team Ontario play their first game at 1 p.m. Thursday, May 16 at the Vale Health and Wellness Centre.

Admission to all games is free, with six games taking place each day on Thursday, May 16 and Friday, May 17 beginning at 9 a.m. Playoffs begin Saturday, May 18 at 11:30 a.m., with four games and the Pool B Championship at 7 p.m. The event will conclude on Sunday, May 19, with the bronze-medal game at 9 a.m. followed by the Championship at 11:30 a.m.