{"id":5285,"date":"2014-01-22T15:32:03","date_gmt":"2014-01-22T20:32:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=5285"},"modified":"2014-02-26T15:22:46","modified_gmt":"2014-02-26T20:22:46","slug":"amha-player-heads-to-sochi-ahead-of-olympics-playing-bandy-for-somalia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/amha-player-heads-to-sochi-ahead-of-olympics-playing-bandy-for-somalia\/","title":{"rendered":"AMHA player heads to Sochi ahead of Olympics \u2013 playing bandy for Somalia"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jeff Doner<\/strong><\/p>\n

Six years ago, Anwar Hared laced up his skates and stepped out onto the rink for the very first time. <\/p>\n

The young athlete honed his craft on skates playing hockey in the AMHA, but it wasn\u2019t long before he decided to try out a similar ice sport called bandy.<\/p>\n

Now 17, Hared is headed to Sochi, Russia this week to take part in the bandy World Championships to play for Somalia \u2013 the country his family emigrated from in 1991.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that it\u2019s my first time ever playing on a world stage, it\u2019s amazing,\u201d an excited Hared said. \u201cThere are no words to really describe how excited I am and the fact that people are going to be watching all over the world is really exciting. I hope I\u2019ll have another opportunity in the future to participate in this event.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year bandy will be showcased at the Olympic Winter Games as a demonstration sport with 17 nations sending their best for the competition.
\nIt will also mark the first time Somalia will have a team participating in a winter sport.<\/p>\n

Although he didn\u2019t receive an invitation to play for the Canadian squad, Hared is more than happy to suit up for his native Somalia, something his family back in Africa think is somewhat outrageous.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt times they make the odd joke that I\u2019m the odd man out in the family, but it\u2019s something that can make me stand out and I think it\u2019s an awesome opportunity for me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBandy helps me get my mind off stress and also it\u2019s an amazing opportunity to support the country of my background on a national scale.\u201d<\/p>\n

There aren\u2019t many bandy players in the area, so when he\u2019s not playing hockey, Hared practices either in the rink or outdoors when he can.
\nBut Hared said it was tough task in itself to convince his parents to help him enroll in hockey so that he could learn to skate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a long process actually,\u201d he explained. \u201cI had to convince my parents because they didn\u2019t want me to play. They were worried I might face racism or problems, but I pushed through and decided to sign up myself. <\/p>\n

\u201cAfter doing so, the exact opposite of what my parents were worried about happened and the hockey community showed me a warm welcoming, love, care and showed me how to play the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hared said the coaches and administrators immediately took him under their wing, making sure he had bought the right equipment and had the right instruction.<\/p>\n

He still plays hockey in Aurora, but Hared said his interest in bandy has only grown.<\/p>\n

The sport is similar to ice hockey, but has different rules, different sticks, less body contact, fighting is not allowed and it is played with an orange hockey ball.<\/p>\n

He said he hopes that others in the community will see him on this trip and be inspired to give bandy a try.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an exciting thing, I use it as motivation to keep playing and maybe help other youth from the community to get into it, especially the African community, because they generally aren\u2019t big on the winter sports,\u201d he said. \u201cI believe the winter sports are great activities that anyone can participate in. It provides awesome opportunities and I feel that more youth in our community should get involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hared, a grade 12 student at St. Maximilian Kolbe Catholic High School, said he\u2019ll also be paying attention to how the Canadian hockey team is doing in Sochi, as one of his role models will be there competing for gold.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be honest, when I started playing hockey I watched the World Junior Championships every Christmas break and there was a couple African-Canadian players that took part, so to see guys like Evander Kane and PK Subban play was a big inspiration for me to play the game and dedicate my time,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThose guys and the fact that they succeeded, even though my chance of making the NHL are like 0.01 per cent, it just made me realize that no matter who you are and where you come from, you can do anything. No one can hold you back.\u201d<\/p>\n

For what has become an amazing experience, Hared wanted to give a shout out to some of the people that made the trip possible.
\n\u201cI would like to give a special acknowledgement to my first team, both of my hockey teams in Aurora and of course my bandy coaches.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Six years ago, Anwar Hared laced up his skates and stepped out onto the rink for the very first time. <\/p>\n

The young athlete honed his craft on skates playing hockey in the AMHA, but it wasn\u2019t long before he decided to try out a similar ice sport called bandy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/2014-01-22-06.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-1nf","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-05 15:32:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}