On Jan. 24 and 25 in Toronto, the PWHL’s sold-out fantasy camp featured skills sessions and a game.Heather Pollock
As sports fans cheer from the stands or their couch, many wonder what it would be like to actually suit up and play.
Neil Meany had that chance. He attended fantasy camps for the New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers, and turned that into a profession running a Florida fantasy camp for the defunct Montreal Expos.
“It’s a dream come true for so many,” says Meany, who grew up as a huge fan of Major League Baseball, and tried out for the Tigers in his youth. “I wanted to see more people live that dream. That’s why I got into the camp business.”
Fantasy sports camps are a hybrid between a vacation and a training camp. They’re geared to take attendees through a milder version of a professional athlete’s practice and game experience.
While hockey and baseball have the most fantasy camp options in North America, there are offerings in a variety of sports to indulge every type of athlete.
At the PGA Tour Player Experience at TPC Sawgrass in Florida, weekend golfers tee up at the home of The Players Championship, complete with caddies and pro tips. The Richard Petty Driving Experience lets people drive a real NASCAR vehicle around some of the most famous tracks in the U.S. And for speed fans who don’t need a car, the Team USA Luge Fantasy Camp at Lake Placid, New York sends participants down a track feet first.
Aside from the thrill of competing like the pros, Meany says fantasy camp participants love the chance to peek behind the curtain. “It’s an insider’s look into what it’s really like to be one of these guys.”
That’s part of what motivated Toronto-based entrepreneur Tony Katz to first form a team for pro-am supporting research into Alzheimer’s at Baycrest. The event, now in its 19th year, is billed as North America’s largest hockey fundraiser. Sitting in a locker room and hearing stories from hockey legends like Darryl Sittler is the best part of playing with former pros, says Katz, who has taken part many times.
“It’s such an honour to play, but it’s also so much fun because you spend your lifetime watching sports on TV, and you put these people on a pedestal, then you find out that they’re just regular guys,” says Katz. “They have special skills, but most of all they’re just really good people.”
One teammate stands out for him: Natalie Spooner, a Canadian Olympian and current member of the Toronto Sceptres of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL).
Tony Katz got to play with Canadian national women’s hockey team member Natalie Spooner at a pro-am fundraiser in Toronto.Tony Katz/Supplied
“Three years ago we had Natalie Spooner and it was incredible,” Katz says. “Here’s someone who’s won gold medals. She’s a peak performer and was in the best shape of anybody at the tournament. Some of the guys, who think they’re good hockey players, were trying to get the puck away from her, and she was just brushing them off like flies.”
This January, fans had the chance to meet and play with the country’s best women players at the first PWHL Fantasy Camp in Toronto. Kiki Moore McConnell learned of the camp from a member of the hockey team she plays for in St. John’s, Newfoundland, and jumped to sign up.
“It was very impulsive but, boy, it was one of the best things I ever did,” says Moore McConnell, who celebrated her 71st birthday at the camp. “Just seeing these fabulous legends, it was so much fun. To even have an opportunity like that is very unusual for women and it was very appreciated.”
The two-day event sold out, and featured professionals like Sarah Nurse, Emma Maltais, Tessa Bonhomme, Cassie Campbell-Pascall and Jayna Hefford.
“We thought this was a unique way to bring together some of our most loyal fans, many of whom are women who have played the game and loved the game for so long,” says Hefford, who also serves as PWHL’s senior vice-president of Hockey Operations. “I don’t think people stopped smiling all weekend. It was a great way to engage with some of those fans that never got to play the game at this level.”
