Congratulations!

BC’s Deaf Men’s Volleyball team captured gold at the inaugural Canada Deaf Games (CDG) in
Edmonton, Alberta on Saturday, May 19, 2012. Team BC were undefeated at the tournament and
competed against Ontario in the final match, winning in three straight close games to be awarded Gold.
More than 200 deaf athletes (minimum hearing loss of 55 db), from across Canada converged in
Edmonton May 12 – 19th to compete in both summer and winter sports. CDG also allowed for National
team representatives to scout players for future international Deaf sporting event teams.
“I am so proud of our team, we’ve been training hard since January. We brought together a group of
men with varying volleyball skills and experiences, not to mention ages, and created a strong team that
played really well together” stated coach Kyle Brewer (who has become a skilled American Sign
Language (ASL) communicator over the past few years). Brewer is well known in BC’s volleyball circles
as a past player for BC’s provincial team and also a member of Thompson River University Men’s
Volleyball Team. Brewer, now a pharmacist in Vernon, has moved onto coaching athletes. “I’m
delighted we won the first ever CDG, I’m sure every province will be striving to beat us in years to
come.”
Player Cole Sanderson, 24 of Vancouver, added, “Many of us, from across Canada have known each
other since elementary school – we share a passion for volleyball and it’s great to get together. It just
means so much more to be able to compete with long‐time friends – and afterwards share the
experience equally in our first language ‐ ASL. Everyone here shares the same community, culture and
language – as well, we are all passionate about sport. We look forward to the next Deaf Canada Games
and growing this event to include many more deaf athletes in many more sports.”
BC’s Men’s Volleyball team was made up of one of the oldest athletes to compete in the Deaf Canada
Games (Eugeniu Televco age 70) as well as the youngest (Isaac Flink, age 17).