Canadian Blind Hockey Blind Hockey Spotlight - Ruby Gencarelli
Player Spotlight: Ruby Gencarelli, Ottawa 67’s Children and Youth Blind Hockey program Ruby was four the first time she glided onto the pond in her family’s backyard, and she would argue she was even as young at one years old! Her dad, a lifelong hockey player, couldn’t wait to get her on skates. When the family found out about the Blind Hockey program in Ottawa, he signed her up right away. She was six.
Ruby was born with aniridia. “That means I have no iris,” she explains. “My vision is blurry and I can’t see detailed things.” On the ice, the blind hockey puck makes the difference. “It’s bigger and it has bells. I can hear when it bounces off the walls, and I know where it is.”
Ruby further explains “when I can’t see it, I follow the crowd of players, and when I’m in the middle of that crowd, I follow with my ears.”
“When I was six, I kind of hung around and didn’t do the drills,” Ruby says. “I really started when I was seven. I fell a lot, sure, but now I feel it’s easy.”
Now 10 and in grade 5, Ruby says she feels confident on skates. Her mom puts it more bluntly: “She’s faster than I am. She turns better and she stops better than I do, and she can do so much, her dad is so impressed as well.”
Trying Blind Hockey: Asked what she’d tell someone nervous to try? “It’s kind of hard when you’re doing some of the drills, but I’d say tiny steps. Itty bitty steps. And do it even though you’re a bit scared.”
Her mom has advice for hesitant parents. “Everyone else there has, or had, the same concerns. You gain confidence by doing it, and the kids do too. It meets them where they are. Some kids come and just skate, and that’s fine. You never know what your kid’s capable of until you give them the opportunity.”
A hockey family For Ruby’s parents, the program has become part of their life. Ryan Gencarelli has been a pro-active volunteer parent for years, jumping into coach and help out the charity when needed at programs and events.
“When you have a kid with low vision, you think maybe hockey won’t be in the cards,” her mom says. “Ruby’s dad Ryan said he never thought he’d be coaching his kid in hockey, and that meant a lot to him.”
Off the ice, Ruby is always creating. She enjoys art, editing, and is writing her second novel in braille. “It doesn’t slow her down,” her mom says. “It’s just different ways of doing the same things any kid does.”
The Ontario Cup in Ottawa: Ruby played her first big tournament in Toronto at age eight. The Ontario Cup will be different: it’s in her own city, and her nana has even made a gift basket for the raffle. “She’s very proud to be part of the first group, and to host it in her own city,” her mom says. “If kids and parents who thought it wasn’t possible see other kids doing it, they’ll realize it’s available. It’s different, but it’s the same.”
When she grows up, Ruby wants to be a farmer, an artist and an actor.
Catch Ruby and her teammates at the Blind Hockey Ontario Cup in Ottawa at Tom Brown Arena November 6–8: https://canadianblindhockey.com/news/the-ontario-cup-november-6-7-8/