Para Series Preview: Canada vs. United States

Being a goaltender is in Mitchell Garrett’s DNA. No matter what sport he
performs, he all the time needs to be the final line of defence.

After taking part in as a catcher in baseball and a goaltender in soccer rising
up, the Surrey, B.C., product started taking part in hockey at 10 years outdated.

“My dad grew up as a soccer player,” Garrett says. “Telling him that I
wished to change into hockey was not essentially the news he wished to
hear.”

Garrett performed between the pipes for 12 years, normally in home league or
sometimes in rep. After highschool, he continued to play recreationally
with a few of his minor hockey teammates.

“I keep in mind when my accident occurred, it was like a month earlier than the brand new
season began,” the 29-year-old says. “So that was a shock to them listening to
that I wasn’t going to have the ability to play for them ever once more.”

On July 29, 2017, Garrett was tenting when he determined to take a buddy’s ATV
for a drive. When he didn’t return, a search social gathering discovered Garrett had crashed
on the aspect of the highway.

He was airlifted to Vancouver General Hospital and identified with a T4
full spinal wire harm. Despite his prognosis, Garrett progressed
shortly and accomplished rehabilitation inside three months.

“It was a extremely quick course of. I keep in mind everyone telling me that is going
a lot quicker than what it’s usually presupposed to,” he says. “I actually wished
to make myself goal-oriented after I was in rehab as a result of I didn’t need to be
there. I simply wished to get stepping into my life, and I knew it was going to be
a significant change.”

Matteo Pellizzari (left), Mitchell Garrett and Brendon Hurst.

Throughout the whole course of, hockey was all the time on Garrett’s thoughts.

“I don’t keep in mind my harm in any respect. I wakened within the hospital and I’m like,
‘Where am I right now?’ [They told me I’m] within the hospital, and I used to be like,
‘Oh, well I have a playoff game tonight, I need to go play hockey.’”

Now paralyzed from the chest down after his harm, Garrett instantly
shifted his focus to how he may get again on the ice and commenced researching
para hockey.

“I studied [Team Canada goaltender] Dom Larocque. I watched each single
interview I may discover of him,” he explains. “I keep in mind watching it three
or 4 instances over and pausing on the on-ice clips, simply actually analyzing
his setup and making an attempt to determine it out for myself. [He] was an enormous
inspiration.”

More than 9 months after his accident, Garrett returned to the ice and
obtained again in internet—this time in a sled.

“It was fairly monumental for me getting again to being a goaltender. My
dad and mom had been there; my dad was on the ice and my mother was watching,” Garrett
recollects. “I keep in mind that skate, I simply appeared like a fish out of water.

“When I obtained off the ice, my mother was identical to, ‘Is this for you? Do you
actually need to do that? It seems to be such as you’re struggling on the market.’ I simply
informed her finally it will likely be easy, and every thing will probably be good.”

Although he was again on the ice, his new actuality did current some challenges
for taking part in para hockey. Without the flexibility to maneuver something under his
chest, it offered some limitations for being a goaltender once more.

“[Other goalies] have their whole core to make use of and so they have their legs and
their knees to face up on. I keep in mind everyone telling me how a lot of a
drawback I used to be at, [but I] by no means even take into account {that a} drawback for a
second,” he says. “We’re nonetheless taking part in the identical sport. We’re nonetheless going
after the identical aim.”

Mitchell together with his dad, Ken Garrett.

Garrett set his eyes on his subsequent aim—incomes a spot on Canada’s National Para Hockey Team—and started working. After each ice time, he would have a look at his
sled setup and make changes.

“I’ve a shed at my place and that’s just like the software shed. That’s the place all
the arduous work off the ice goes down, simply to make sure I’m in tip-top form
after I’m on the market,” he says. “I used to be constantly tweaking my sled for the
longest time; shifting it up, shifting it down, determining the place my blades
go.”

His house rink, the Langley Sportsplex, offered free ice time so he may
follow all year long. On the ice, Garrett’s dad Ken joined him to be
a shooter for his practices and he grew to become the top coach of British
Columbia’s para hockey workforce.

“I know I wouldn’t be able to do it without him,” Garrett says. “My dad has
been an unlimited assist all through this whole course of, ensuring that it’s
probably the most pleasant for me.”

His arduous work on and off the ice started to repay, and Garrett was invited
to take part in his first choice camp with Canada’s National Para
Hockey Team forward of the 2022-23 season.

“It’s all the time good to have any individual concerned that has expertise taking part in the
place and the sport previous to their accident,” says Russ Herrington, head
coach of Canada’s National Para Hockey Team. “That was the one factor that we
seen instantly with Mitch was that each glove arms and his capability to
monitor the puck, that was one thing that transferred over from his earlier
expertise.”

“It didn’t really go as I planned,” Garrett says about choice camp. “To be sincere, it wasn’t a
nice displaying for me. I feel perhaps I used to be just a little starstruck on the camp.
[I had never] performed with these caliber gamers and these are gamers who
I’ve wished to play with for therefore lengthy.”

After camp concluded, Garrett took the expertise to coronary heart and obtained again to
coaching even more durable for his subsequent alternative.

“I simply informed myself that I’m beginning to pattern in the precise route and
simply to remain on monitor and proceed what I used to be doing as a result of I seen that
it was working for me,” Garrett says.

Corbyn Smith (left) and Mitchell Garrett have a good time after beating Czechia on the 2023 Para Hockey Cup.

When he returned to choice camp in September, his enhancements had been
evident to the teaching workers.

“I think he’s more comfortable in a sled,” Herrington says. “I feel he was
just a little timid [getting to the top of the crease] early on, and now we see
him be just a little extra assertive in his positioning and difficult the
shooter.”

After dreaming of creating Team Canada for over six years, Garrett lastly obtained
the cellphone name that he could be making his worldwide debut on the 2023 Para Hockey Cup in Quispamsis, New Brunswick.

“That’s top-of-the-line elements of this job is delivering that kind of news.
We’re actually excited to have him right here with us,” Herrington says. “Our
veterans do such a great job of celebrating alternatives like that as a result of
it wasn’t too way back that they had been donning the jersey for the primary
time.”

“From my household to my mates to my girlfriend, everyone has actually performed
an element on this course of,” Garrett says. “That was a extremely cool second on the
cellphone (telling my dad and mom I made the workforce); you might simply really feel how proud
[my dad] was by the cellphone.

“For my mother, after that first ice time together with her being like ‘Is this proper
for you,’ after which having the ability to inform her that I made the workforce—it was a
full-circle second.”

In Quispamsis, Garrett is trying ahead to placing on the Maple Leaf for
the primary time, taking part in on the worldwide stage and hopefully inspiring
extra members of the paraplegic group to start out taking part in para hockey.

“I’ve to carry again my tears each single time I give it some thought as a result of
[playing for Team Canada] is a aim that I’ve had since I used to be eight,” he
says. “Most individuals take into account different sports activities simply due to my incapacity… I’m
very excited to be altering that narrative.”