Parapan Am profile: Canada’s sitting volleyball player continues digging out Paralympic dream

Jamoi Anderson has always been active and up for any challenge.

The GTA born-and-raised man rattles off the list of sports he’s played as if reading a grocery list.

“Basketball, football, baseball, soccer and a little bit of volleyball,” said the 29 year old.

So when his friends asked him to join them on the court to play sitting volleyball in 2012, he didn’t hesitate.

Those same friends have now been his teammates for the past four years.

“I’ve been with these guys ever since,” said Anderson.

Anderson, who was beaming from cheek to cheek about competing in his first ever Parapan Am Games, made the Canadian sitting volleyball team at a selection camp in his hometown and enjoys the difficulty of the sport.

Before he took to the court for sitting volleyball, he developed flu-like symptoms that ended up making him very ill and was diagnosed with multi-organ failure in 2008. He was in a coma for a month, losing circulation to his limbs after doctors focused blood flow to his heart to keep him alive.

 

The lack of blood flow to the rest of his body resulted in his left foot developing gangrene.

“I looked into amputations and I was comfortable with doing the surgery,” he said. “It’s been wicked ever since.”

Anderson said he was able to keep his knee joint and amputated below it on his left leg, which allows him to do “everything.”

“Whatever you can think of, I do it,” he said. “I’ve always been athletic and competitive, so this was just another step of a challenge for me to overcome.”

He even prefers sitting volleyball to standing.

“Sitting is definitely more challenging, but it’s also more fun,” he said.

During the game, players must have their torso on the ground when they hit the ball, using a lot of upper body and core strength to travel across the court. Players get ready with their hands in sitting volleyball, instead of their legs as they would in standing.

The two sports are very similar with only slight differences.

“Same rules apply, three contacts, we still attack the ball,” Anderson said.

This year’s Canadian team is the best group he’s played with since joining the sport.

“Our skills and talent really come together,” he said. And playing on home soil gives them that extra advantage to make it to the finals.

But it wasn’t only a Parapan Am Games medal on the line.

“This is the direct qualifier for the Paralympics next year in Brazil,” said Anderson.

The top two teams in the gold medal final qualify for the Rio 2016 Summer Paralympics.

Team Canada missed the gold medal round after losing to the United States on Aug 13, but advanced onto the bronze medal match on Aug 14.

The team finished with an impressive bronze medal after defeating Columbia 3-0. It wasn’t the ending Anderson had hoped for, but said the experience was an opportunity of a lifetime.

“We worked really hard,” said Anderson.

But Anderson’s determination for pursuing challenges demonstrates one thing, it’s that he has the ability to keep working towards his dream of making it to the Paralympics.

“When you are given challenges and you can overcome them and want to continue to pursue things… that’s the place I want to be.”