CARLYLE - Usually, when one reports on Carlyle’s Carter Morrison for his athletic prowess, the sport of golf comes to mind.
Morrison is an accomplished golfer and can give anyone a good game. Earlier this month, he competed in a table tennis tournament and that is why we interviewed him for this story.
Morrison has played the game for many years and has a great operation set up in his basement, including a table tennis robot. With the assistance of Table Tennis Saskatchewan, Morrison was able to enter a Canadian Paralympics sanctioned event in Toronto.
Together with his parents Trevor and Lisa Morrison, Carter arrived at the facility and immediately had issues.
“First of all, they asked me if I had brought a coach. I hadn’t. Then, they told me, you can’t wear a white shirt when you play in a tournament, it hides the ball. My mom scrambled and found me a pink one.”
Things then settled down after that inauspicious start. Carter Morrison played six best of five single matches that Saturday and another four doubles matches on Sunday. He held his own among the 20 or so participants that represented nearly every province across Canada.
Morrison is short statured and his disability is graded a six on a scale of one to 11. (1-5 is wheel-chaired, those ranked 6-10 have some type of physical disability, and the rank of 11 is for the intellectually disabled.)
Morrison was the only athlete representing Saskatchewan and personally wanted to thank his parents and president Paul Noel of the Saskatchewan Table Tennis Association for allowing him to compete. Added Morrison: “I tried my best, but you know, the competition was tough and I just didn’t practise enough over the summer. I really had trouble defending side spin that I don’t see much of here at home. I did, however, learn a lot at this competition and will become a better player because of it. I really enjoyed it.”
Morrison, who graduates from high school this June, loves table tennis and it is his personal goal to participate in the 2023 Parapan American Games in Santiago, Chile. His dad Trevor also plans on forming a table tennis club in Carlyle this winter. Watch for details in upcoming issues of the Observer.
