Oliver Pye has a passion for life, his family and the game. He’s a loving father of 4, a massage therapist by trade, and he’s an incredible goalie. Here’s his story in his own words:
I started hockey when I was 8 years old. I was playing a lot of pond hockey, organized rink hockey and went on to play in a league. My vision was starting to go, due to RP around the age of 13 – 14. It was really the night vision going first, I still had good daytime vision so it didn’t affect me playing sports.
I eventually stopped playing hockey and moved from Pugwash to Halifax where around the age of 25 I connected with Blind Sports Nova Scotia and got involved with Goalball. I tried other sports like track and field and Blind Bowling, but that almost got me kicked out of the building because I accidentally through the ball over 3 lanes – so I figured I better stick with Goalball!
I went on to play many regional tournaments and I played for the National Team. In 2001 I went with the team to Spartanburg, South Carolina where we won a gold medal for Team Canada during the Pan American Games. My goalball career lasted a good 20 years and I still played a tournament at the end of last year when I was invited out because why not!
Sometimes when I reflect on that journey, I put one of those medals in my hand and it takes me back to the sounds and feels of the environment, the sound of the crowd, the excitement. It’s amazing.
In 2017 when I was done playing Goalball for the most part, I participated in the first program practice for the Nova Scotia See Kings. The first year was really just learning how to play the game again, getting all the goalie gear on and I was lucky enough to have a great goalie coach
Looking back, I was playing goalie with a vision impairment up until I was 20 or so, and although I could see better, but I would see the puck being shot off but lose it halfway. Now I was learning to do it with a much lower level of vision.
After my competitive career in Goalball, I quickly set my sights on trying out for the Canadian National Blind Hockey Team and I was drafted in 2022 in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
I’m so grateful that over the past few years, I was able to compete in the Blind Hockey League and be named to Canada’s National Blind Hockey team once again. I want to continue to compete in this sport as long as I can. It just gives me incentive, incentive to keep a healthy lifestyle and to show my kids a pathway to work hard, train hard and get rewarded in the end.
