Oakville, Mississauga hoopsters to play for Canadian women’s wheelchair basketball team

Melanie Hawtin of Oakville and Tamara Steeves of Mississauga will represent Canada in a set of international women’s wheelchair basketball games next week in Europe.

Hawtin and Steeves and their Canadian teammates will travel to the Netherlands to take on the Dutch and German national teams from June 13-17.

On Monday (June 6), Wheelchair Basketball Canada announced the 12 athletes that will take part in a training camp being held this week (June 6-10) in Toronto.

While Steeves is scheduled to take part in the camp, Hawtin will not be in Toronto. Both though will represent Canada in the Netherlands.

The camp will provide the athletes and coaching staff an opportunity to build off May’s games against the United States in Colorado as the team works towards a roster selection for the IWBF Americas Cup in July.

“This camp will provide our staff an excellent opportunity to build off the camp and games we had in Colorado last month,” said Jeff Dunbrack, Wheelchair Basketball Canada High Performance Director. “The games against the Netherlands and Germans will provide great competition for athletes as we prepare for Brazil.”

The 10 athletes participating in both the camp and games are:

• Arinn Young (Legal, Alta.)
• Aurélie Jacob-Verreault (Lévis, Que.)
• Cindy Ouellet (Quebec City, Que.)
• Danielle Duplessis (Fredericton, N.B.)
• Élodie Tessier (Saint-Germain de Grantham, Que.)
• Kady Dandeneau (Pender Island, B.C.)
• Sandrine Bérubé (Beauharnois, Que.)
• Sofia Fassi Fehri (Montreal, Que.)
• Tara Llanes (North Vancouver, B.C.)
• Tamara Steeves (Mississauga, Ont.)

Athletes participating only in Toronto Camp:

• Anikka Cassidy (Calgary, Alta.)
• Megan Smith (Vancouver, B.C.)

Athlete participating only in games:

• Melanie Hawtin (Oakville, Ont.)

Coaches

• Marc Antoine Ducharme (Chambly, Que.) – Senior Women’s Head Coach
• Marni Abbott-Peter (Vancouver, B.C.) –  Assistant Coach