Winnipeg woman cracks national dodgeball team’s roster

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This article was published 28/08/2019 (2578 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

While dodging wrenches isn’t in Julie McLaren’s training regime, she can most definitely dodge a ball.

Last week, McLaren was one of 12 Canadian women — and the only Manitoban — to edge her way past more than 150 others vying for a spot on the Canadian national dodgeball team.

Now, McLaren will travel to Cancun, Mexico, and compete at the World Dodgeball Federation’s world championship in November.

“I am so thankful for such an amazing opportunity and that they selected me, oh my gosh. There’s a lot of talent out there, so it’s such an honour that I got this far. It’s been a great ride so far,” McLaren said.

While McLaren may have tossed a few dodgeballs around in her childhood gym classes, the sport wasn’t something the 27-year-old began taking seriously until few years ago.

Even then, her journey to the national team all began because of random chance.

When her cousin’s dodgeball team was looking for a sub about four years ago, she thought nothing of it, simply joining to fill a space on the team and have some fun. Turns out, the sport was more addicting than she thought. She decided to join the team full time as soon as she was asked.

The road to the national team has been a busy one for McLaren. Since her dodgeball debut, she’s moved through the ranks and put up three impressive seasons on the provincial team. McLaren admits she’s even surprised herself. While she’s competitive at heart, the competition aspect of dodgeball isn’t her favourite thing about the sport.

“The whole reason I started: it was the community — finding friends and finding people you have similar interests with,” she said.

Since joining the sport, McLaren has never been happier. She was born and raised in Morden, but moved to Winnipeg five years ago to live with the man who is now her husband. Dodgeball was — and still is — a great social outlet that allowed her to meet people in an unfamiliar city.

“I’d be at my full-time job and it’s just like I worked and came home. It was a little lonely, I guess. (My husband’s) cousin asked if I could sub for a game and it was nice to find some friends from it,” McLaren said.

Since the national team trials in Prince Edward Island in April, McLaren has been travelling to Toronto once a month to train with other national-team contenders. On Wednesday, the 17-person squad was narrowed down to the 12-person active roster going to Cancun.

This will be McLaren’s first appearance at an international dodgeball competition.

The team is hoping for at least a small improvement this year. Last year, the women’s national team just missed the podium at the world championship, losing the bronze-medal match to Australia.

devon.shewchuk@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter:@devonshewchuk