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I have had the opportunity of speaking to a young man who has been making great strides with
his achievements in the dart world, although it seems as if he has been around forever. Wayne Morrissey began playing darts as a youth player in St. John’s,
Newfoundland, in 1987 and was a member of the Newfoundland Youth Team in 1988 in Moncton, New Brunswick.
Wayne moved to Alberta in 1992. He is married with two children, a daughter
who is 10 and a son who is 8. His wife, Maryanne, is also a dart player and is very supportive of Wayne and the time that he spends away from home
attending out-of-province tournaments. As a highly ranked player on the Canadian ranking list, it also helps that Wayne’s employer is very supportive
of the time he takes off to participate in darts tournaments. Incidentally, Wayne works at a drywall company as a shipper/receiver.
What does Wayne do when he is at home and not playing darts? Well his
favorite food is pizza and chicken wings. His favorite actor is Adam Sandler and actress is Drew Barrymore. When watching TV, he always heads to the channel with Headline Sports. When not playing darts, he likes to go hunting
and fishing. With his busy schedule, he doesn’t have much time for reading, but when he does get an opportunity, he likes autobiographies and sports stories.
As I mentioned earlier, Wayne first started playing darts in Newfoundland with
the help of Keith Samuelson, the NL Director. He has been playing ever since. He has been a member of Team Alberta three times, 1996, 2001 and
2004, and the past couple of years have been very good for Wayne.
He has represented Canada twice at the World Masters, in 2001 and 2004,
and finished last year ranked Number 2 in Canada. His goal is to reach the number one spot and also to represent Canada at the World Cup. This being
a World Cup year, I imagine Wayne will be doing some heavy practicing.
While on the subject of practicing, his program consists of playing 170 and
around the board on doubles. He practices between one half to an hour at a time, four to five days a week, so he obviously has a pretty good practice
schedule in place. Just prior to a major tournament he ups his practice time to one to three hours a day for the week prior to the tournament. Wayne
plays in the Edmonton City League on a Thursday night and travels to as many tournaments as he can.
When asking Wayne about his interest in other sports his response was that
he liked to watch hockey and NFL football. Well, he certainly isn’t watching the NHL this year and I can’t help wondering what is wrong with the CFL,
which has two teams in Alberta!
As a former youth player, Wayne is pleased to see that Alberta is an avid
promoter of Youth Darts and maybe one or both of his children will be participating in the not too distant future. His words to the young players are
for them to practice and play as much as they can.
My usual last question is, “do you think that the NDFC is doing the best they
can to improve the level of darts?” Wayne thinks that the NDFC is on the right track and the level of darts in this country is constantly improving.
It is rewarding to see a young player who came through our youth program
making some noise at the adult level, and I sincerely hope that Wayne achieves all of his dreams in the not too distant future.
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