WRITTEN BY TEAM MANITOBA – AUG. 11, 2025
In a sport often defined by individual performance, Team Manitoba’s tennis athletes are showing what it means to compete together at the Canada Games. For 15-year-old Gabby Prince (Winnipeg, Otto Tennis Academy) and 17-year-old Evan Deeley (Winnipeg, Taylor Tennis Centre), stepping into this multi-sport national event has been the culmination of training, personal development, and making friends out of foes.
Coach Jared Connell knows how rare it can be for tennis players—usually solo competitors—to find this kind of bond.
“We’ve always had younger players in Manitoba. We try to work with them on their understanding or independence, and then also work with our tools for support and then the other supports that they have – like their parents and the greater team,” he said.
Mental Preparation for a National Stage
To help prepare for the high-pressure Games setting, the team is also leaning on support from Team Manitoba’s mental performance consultants. The session made a noticeable impact on the team, helping to enhance focus, manage nerves, and boost confidence,
“Well, I felt maybe a little bit tight, a little bit nervous and excited, I’d say, to go play my first match day at Canada Games,” said Evan. “But, after talking to him, I felt a little more calm and relaxed going into playing, which was helpful.”
Both Gabby and Evan trained through Team Manitoba’s high-performance program in the years leading up to these Games, and many of the players already know each other well.
“Since there’s so few players, we train together, and then we also play together. So I feel like it’s always intense during the match and then it’s a lot lighter after that, and we’re all friends because we’ve been together for so long. A lot of the guys on our team, I think I’ve already played like five, six times this year,” Evan added.
Off-Court Connections
The coaches and players both agree that team building off the court has been just as important as training on it.
“We would do different activities together. I remember we went to play board games and it was pretty cool connecting with the team outside of tennis, because we spend a lot of time just training, not really seeing each other’s personalities,” Gabby noted.
Building Momentum
While the Games may be the destination, the path to get here wasn’t always easy. Both athletes had breakthrough moments that reignited their belief in themselves.
“At the start of this year I wasn’t feeling too well about my tennis. And then I remember I played the Taylor tournament and I made finals and I was pretty happy about it because I had been coming off a bad season, and I was coming back into myself and getting my strokes back and everything,” Gabby recalled. “I was like, okay, now I really have a chance to actually go and do well there.”
“I’m pretty hard on myself, but a big moment was last tournament before they picked the team. I won the tournament. So that helped, and gave me some confidence going into this,” Evan said.
This week at the Canada Games, Gabby, Evan, and their teammates are proving their talent and showing how powerful it can be when individual athletes unite with a shared purpose. It’s not just about who wins the next point—it’s about building a team and growing together.
