From a try-it to an international floor, Lieutenant Emma Murphy has taken to floorball.
Murphy, the mechanical support officer with 14 Air Maintenance Squadron, competed with the Canadian women’s floor ball team in a world championships qualifier February 25 and 26 – after just having tried the sport in October.
“I played on CAF Sports Day here at the wing,” Murphy says.
She’d seen the sport in high school, when her hometown arena hosted a U19 world championship event and she volunteered to be a ball retriever.
“I was impressed then with the level of the teams playing – the European and Scandinavian teams are really, really good.”
Here at the Greenwood intro session, “I had so much fun – we played three-on-three, like seven of us had signed up, so one of us hopped in net. A few of the organizers were in there with us showing the skills and drills, and we had a blast. I went out and bought a stick that week.”
Murphy also started attending weekly Wednesday evening community floorball at Wolfville Elementary School’s gym, where everyone from 12-year-olds to seniors come for four-on-four fun. A hockey, basketball and soccer player through her youth, with some track, and then university rugby 7s while at Royal Military College taking aerospace engineering, “it was really easy to pick up and play.
“Ball hockey would be a lot like floorball, but floorball rules are more similar to soccer and, maybe, it’s less physical. There’d be shoulder-to-shoulder action, but you wouldn’t be right in there with someone. And you can’t lift up a stick. You’d typically play in a normal gym, but tournaments would be on a more spring floor setting, with short boards.”
Within the month of joining the Wolfville sessions, organizers there encouraged her to try-out for the women’s national team. The try-out was in Wolfville, and a number of Halifax-area players also attended.
“I felt foolish – how can I do this! Bro, I literally just came!”
She made the team of 23 athletes, including a few alternates, and they readied themselves to meet the United States in Belleville, Ontario, for the recent two-game qualifier weekend. On the line for the winner was a spot at the world championships in Singapore in December.
“Unfortunately, we lost both games against Team USA and will not be going on to Singapore. However, the team played very well and showed a marked improvement from the last competition with a combined score between the two games of 8-2, which is much better than the 2018 qualifier, where we lost with a combined score of 21-3.”
Murphy says it was exciting to be a part of the team, even on the fourth line, and she’s “definitely going to keep working on my skills so that we can come back and win at the next competition in two years’ time!
“I had so much fun getting to know the team and cheering them on, and just getting to be at the event was fantastic – the atmosphere was great!”
Murphy’s first military posting was to 14 Wing, where she’s since joined the base sports program as a member of the women’s hockey team, and she’s learning to curl in Middleton this winter. She anticipates playing with other base sports team as the opportunity arises, but she’s willing to intro floorball to anyone interested: “I’ve taken a few friends to Wolfville a couple of times. Anyone who’s played any kind of sport – hockey, soccer, lacrosse – floorball is super easy to pick up!”
