Greetings from Jen Bennett, Chef de Mission I am honoured and excited to be leading Team Ontario for the 2017 Canada Summer Games in Winnipeg. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Canada Games and the 150th anniversary of Canada, so these Games will no doubt be an amazing experience for everyone involved. Our dedicated team of volunteer Mission Staff have been working for over a year to ensure that all athletes, coaches, and managers participating in the Games are fully prepared and able to focus on an optimal performance on the field of play. I have a great mission team, some of whom you will meet in this newsletter and I would like to thank them for all of their hard work thus far. We know our Ontario athletes have been busy training hard and we hope that every athlete participating in the Games enjoys every moment in Winnipeg. From the drama and excitement of competition on the field of play to the friendships you will make, the Canada Games experi- ence will be sure to give you memories to last a lifetime. Early in the planning process we worked through an exercise as Mission Staff to develop a vi- sion and value statement for Team Ontario in 2017 and came up with the following: Performance, Respect, Integrity, Dedication,E xcellence. You will see these values woven throughout everything we do and we trust that our athletes, coaches and managers will embrace the values of Team Ontario PRIDE both on and off the field of play. With less than 100 days to go until the Opening Ceremony, we are excited to continue to work with you as we prepare for the “hottest summer in half a century”. Go Team Ontario! All my Best, Back row: Kevin Sousa, Ryan Albright, Justan Steele, Nick Snow, Greg Theriault, Kelly Stefanyshyn, Shravan Chopra. Middle Row: Jennifer Bennett, Janice Dawson, Marcia Morris, Sherry Doiron, Laura Albright, Jane Park. Front Row: Marlene Stirrett- Matson, Cecily Clarke, Stacy Halonen, Katrina Galas, Janice Robinson. Missing: Cathy O’Doherty Team Ontario Mission Team for the 2017 Canada Summer Games April Newsletter Introducing: Ontario’s Men’s Softball team for 2017! Men's Softball returns to the Canada Games after a 12 year hiatus and Team Ontario has one of the strongest teams in the tournament. Under the tutelage of Head Coach George Ryder they are expected to go all the way in the tournament. The process of choosing Team Ontario for this season's games took 3 years, with 72 athletes called up for training camps after a rigorous scouting process. After six different skill development camps, a final list of 15 athletes and 9 alternates was announced in September last year. The final preparations for participation at the games are currently underway with a holistic training camp held in Brampton in January 2017. Sports nutrition, strength and conditioning, post game recovery and mental training were all part of the latest camp as Team Ontario looked to provide the best possible environment for their athletes to excel at the games. The team is pumped up and ready to go, and signed off the camp by making their mission statement rather clear - "To Bring Gold Home to Ontario!" Calling all Team O Teams! Let your mission staff know when your team is selected and send us an article and a photo so we can highlight your team in an upcoming newsletter. 2 April Newsletter Team Ontario Alumni Profile: Michelle Fazzari 29 year old wrestler Michelle Fazzari is one of the many illustrious alumni of Team Ontario at the Canada Games, who went on achieve greatness, even representing Canada at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Michelle took some time out recently to have a chat with us about her journey over the years and her future aspirations. An athletic youth who spent a lot of time outdoors with friends and family playing everything imaginable, Michelle was particularly gifted in speed skating. Her father Tony encouraged her to try her hand at wrestling, and although she misses her adventures on the ice, Michelle is happy that she chose wrestling as her sport of choice. Amazingly, her first time on the mat was a result of a dare in high school; it’s funny how some things are just meant to be! On an average day, Michelle begins by hitting the gym by 6:30 am. Mornings usually consist of weights, cardio, and technique training. Wrestling practice runs for a couple of hours from 4 pm. Her favorite part of events are traditionally closing ceremonies, and no doubt they will be more memorable in the future when she fulfills her ambition of being a World Medal winner. Photo credit: Wrestling Canada Lutte / Vaughn Ridley All about Winnipeg! As we prepare for our time in Winnipeg, our host of the 50th Canada Summer Games, here are some fun facts that we found. Did you know: Winnipeg lies at the geographic centre of Canada and North America. Winnipeg has the sunniest winter season in Canada with 358 hours of sunshine. The Winnipeg Folk Festival, now 42 years old, is one of the oldest and largest folk festivals in the world. The Winnipeg Art Gallery has the world’s largest collection of contemporary Inuit art. The inspiration for James Bond was famous WWII spymaster Sir William Stephen- son, who happened to be born and raised in Winnipeg. The character of Winnie-the-Pooh was inspired by a black bear named Winnie, who was named after Manitoba’s capital city, Winnipeg. In 1959, Winnipeg was the first North American city to implement a centralized emergency number, 911. Winnipeg boasts the largest number of restaurants per capita in Canada. Notable sports figures that hail from Winnipeg include six time Olympic speedskating medallist and most decorated Ca- nadian Olympian Cindy Klassen, Olympic Taekwondo athlete and bronze-medallist Dominique Bosshart, Summer and Winter Olympic medal winner Clara Hughes and Canadian Olympic Women's Hockey Gold Medallist Jennifer Botterill. And the best fun fact of all: Winnipeg has been named Slurpee Capital of the World fifteen years in a row. 3 April Newsletter 2017 Coaches/Managers Meeting On Saturday October 29th, Team Ontario Mission Staff held a Coaches and Managers Meeting at Humber College that saw more than 25 representatives from provincial sport organizations attend. The coaches and managers received updates from the Mission Team on all aspects of the 2017 Canada Summer Games. The meeting was also the first time sports officially got to meet the dedicated Mission Staff working with their team. The day included Canada Games and Team Ontario overviews, as well as updates from the four core team areas – sport technical, athlete and mission services, administration, and communications. The final session of the day provided time for Team Ontario Mission Staff to meet one-on-one with their sports to gather and share sport-specific information. We look forward to meeting coaches, managers and athletes at your sport specific training camps this spring. Go Team O! Canada Games Council Social Media Niagara Region Named Host of Campaign: Top 50 2021 Canada Summer Games Team Ontario congratulates the Niagara Last fall, CGC launched a social media campaign celebrating the Region on their successful bid to host the 2021 Top 50 Canada Games athletes of all time. Here are the Ontario Canada Summer Games. The Niagara Region beat athletes included in the campaign: out strong bids from the Greater Sudbury Region, Waterloo Region and Ottawa to host the Games. Christine Nesbitt Long Track Speed Skating Ontario has previously hosted the 1981 Canada Alex Pietrangelo Hockey Summer Games in Thunder Bay and the 2001 Can- ada Summer Games in London. The 2021 Canada Steve Stamkos Hockey Games will mark the third time the Sue Holloway Cross Country Skiing and Canoe Canada Summer Games are hosted in the province of Ontario. Diane Matheson Soccer Team Ontario can’t wait to welcome the nation in Lennox Lewis Boxing 2021! Adam Van Koeverden Canoe Kayak Cassie Campbell Hockey Brian Orser Figure Skating Chris Pronger Hockey Andre De Grasse Athletics Anne Ottenbrite Swimming 4 April Newsletter Meet the Team Ontario Core Team JEN BENNETT CECILY CLARKE NICK SNOW Chef de Mission Assistant Chef Assistant Chef ATTENTION Lead Sport Tech Team Lead Athlete and Mission Previous Canada Games Services SPORTS FANS! experience: Mission staff in Previous Canada Games Previous Canada Games 2013 in Sherbrooke. Experience: Mission staff in experience: Mission staff in Passes to the Games have 2011 Halifax, 2013 Sherbrooke 2013 and 2015 Games; been on sale for awhile, but Other Games experience: and 2015 Prince George. Observer 2011 Halifax; Volun- as of the end of February Jack of all trades at 2012 teer 2001 London. single tickets went on sale Ontario Summer Games; Other Games experience: Other Games experience: for all events. Check it out at 2015 Bid Committee and Athlete at the World Universi- Observer 2011 Pan Am Games; the Games website: Volunteer in event ty Games in 2003 in Deagu, Staff 2015 Pan Parapan Am www.2017canadagames.ca Management. South Korea; Staff for 2005 Games. World Transplant Games, Or the Ticketmaster site for Favourite Sport to watch: Volunteer 2015 Pan Parapan Favourite Sport to watch: the Games: https:// Tennis Am Games. Basketball www.ticketmaster.ca/2017- Favourite Sport to play: Favourite Sport to play: Canada-Summer-Games- Tennis Favourite Sport to watch: Basketball tickets/artist/2336691? Favourite Sports movie: World Cup Soccer Favourite Sports movie: Invictus Favourite Sport to play: Beach Space Jam Volleyball Most memorable sporting Favourite Sports Movie: Rudy Most memorable sporting mo- Stay tuned to the moment: Toronto Blue Jays ment: Watching fiancée World Series win 1992.