Johnson training for Parapan Am Games

Shannon LeClair
Times Reporter

 

Cory Johnson, a five-time Canadian track and field record holder, has been working towards a new goal over the past year and a bit. He is aiming to be the soccer goalkeeper in the 2015 Parapan Am Games in Toronto.
Two years ago, while working at Kamp Kiwanis, a member of the Cerebral Palsy (CP) Association of Alberta had told Drew Ferguson, head coach for the national Para-soccer team, about Johnson. The pair was introduced and discussed the possibility of Johnson playing soccer for Team Canada.
“At the time I hadn’t played soccer since junior high and that was about 20 years ago. So I started training and he asked me to train as a goalkeeper,” he said.
Johnson hired a private coach, and in April of this year he went to a training camp in Victoria. Ferguson was impressed at the progress and invited Johnson to the national training camp in August.
“At that training camp I did so well that the goalkeeper coach actually thought I was ready to be a back-up for Team Canada, after one year of training,” said Johnson.
Ferguson wasn’t as sure and decided to have Johnson wait and train for one more year.
The way the Para-soccer team works is it consists of different levels of players and disabilities. Some are players with brain injuries, some of whom have played major league soccer. The second category is people who have had strokes, and the third is people with CP. There are then three different categories within CP, based on whether one limb, two limbs or all limbs are affected. Johnson falls into the category of having all limbs affected.
Johnson said in his category (CP5) there are not a lot of people that are really athletic and can compete for that spot. Often they are made goalkeepers, though starting next year the rules will state that there has to be a CP5 on field, so he may end up on field as well.
Johnson recently received an e-mail that the Government of Canada, through the Athlete Assistance Program, will card him. Each month he will be given money to help pay for his training, and he will have access to all of the resources and therapies at the University of Calgary and WinSport.
“The goal is to train to be the number one goal keeper next summer, and next summer is the Parapan Am Games and it’s in Toronto, so it would be a huge opportunity,” said Johnson.
“If I never make it to the Paralympics, at least if I make that tournament I can wear the Canadian flag in front of our hometown fans in Toronto.”
In the spring he will find out if he has met his goal.
“To be able to go from not playing soccer for a long time, to being carded took a lot of work, but as a motivational speaker that’s what I teach is how to remove the obstacles in our mind that stop us from achieving our goals,” said Johnson.