What soccer experiences have provided for many of Glengarry’s female athletes over the summer months, broomball has provided them with similar opportunities during the long winter months.
Much of Sharon Jasper’s broomball career has been centered in Williamstown but certainly her competitive presence saw her play far beyond the town’s arena. Daughter of the late Clifford Hope and Kathleen MacLeod, Sharon’s parents supported her playing broomball beginning at the age of 10 in 1975. Her siblings, Brian, Brenda and Robert were all active in the local sports scene. Broomball became popular for girls in the Williamstown area during the late 70s and following years as evidenced by many recreational teams building good competition in Pee Wee, Junior and Ladies divisions. Sharon’s developing love for the sport soon saw her join a second league in Alexandria playing alongside her sister Brenda. The sisters played for the Chez Paul team, wearing those signature bright orange jerseys and pants. Sharon’s schedule was all about the broomball as she also played in the Vankleek Hill Broomball League from 2013 to 2022, playing with the Capron’s Trucking team that dominated by winning the league championship 9 years consecutively.
It was only a matter of time that Sharon would begin playing for competitive travelling teams entering regional weekend tournaments, and eventually go on to play at the provincial and national levels. Sharon’s skill and team player abilities made her a sought-after recruit to play with teams within the area and beyond in order to build a team that could provide strong competition at tournaments. One such team was the Buffalo Gals. Sharon played with this team for two years, 1984-86, and won the provincials held in St Catherines in 1984. For Sharon, this win began a long winning streak with different competitive teams including the Scorpions, and the Young and Wild teams. RAY-CO, a traveling team of ladies from Williamstown played together from 1987 through till 1998. During these years, they won many silver medals at provincials, however the gold medal remained elusive. Sharon went on to play for McMillan’s Elite Ladies team situated out of Pakenham from 1999 to 2012. This team won gold at the provincials in 1999 and would earn victories at many other weekend tournaments all over Ontario. Their success took them to compete in the Canadian National Broomball Championships, capturing golds in Calgary in 2001, Newfoundland in 2003 and silver in Edmonton in 2005.
Broomball does have an international presence and one of Sharon’s career highlights was competing in 2008 at the World Championships in Vancouver. This team, McMillans, Sharon called her “Dream team” as not only was she playing alongside her niece Glenda (Lauzon) Villeneuve and other long-time teammates, but over the 10 games they played, they scored 30 goals for and only had one against. An exciting final resulted in winning gold in overtime. Desire to return to this level of play happened again in 2010 in Innsbruck, Austria with the team called, Lapierre Sport/Cornwall Olymel, achieving a gold medal win in the B side or what is referred to as the Challenge Cup.
In 2013, Sharon joined the ladies Masters’ division and joined the Arrowstar team. She experienced more success with this team winning gold at provincials that same year as well as being selected to the first line All Star team. She continued playing in the Masters’ division with McMillan’s team and retired at the end of season in 2022, thus ending an illustrious 47 years of playing the sport she loved.
Sharon’s leadership and commitment to broomball inspired many other Glengarry girls to take up the sport. An obvious team leader on and off the ice, she helped organize player recruitment, league play, tournament logistics and numerous fundraising initiatives. She gives credit to her place of employment, Olymel, Cornwall, for allowing her work flexibility and who also sponsored the team’s uniforms and jackets for the Worlds in Innsbruck, Austria.
A well-rounded athlete, Sharon played ball hockey in Alexandria and Cornwall for a number of years, sponge puck in Alexandria and played soccer in the tier 2 GSL women. In 1988 she helped start and run an indoor soccer league at the Williamstown arena. Sharon is the proud mother of two boys, Jymie and Jonathan, two very accomplished hockey players. She always remained active and involved in their sport activities.
For her years of commitment and dedication to the sport of broomball, Sharon will be inducted into the Glengarry Sports Hall of Fame at its Induction Banquet in Alexandria on Wednesday, August 16.
