For Danielle DuPlessis, her first Paralympics is one she won’t soon forget.

With the Games postponed, it provided an additional year for both preparation and the excitement to build.

“It was a really exciting experience. I think there was a lot of lead-up to Tokyo,” DuPlessis said. “It didn’t feel real until we landed in Japan, but I was just really excited to be there, really grateful to Japan for pulling it off, and obviously really excited to be playing with my teammates.”

The Fredericton, N.B. native had no shortage of veterans to lean on for advice at her first Games—her biggest takeaway was not getting too caught up in the experience but enjoying it.

“I think early in the tournament, especially during staging, it was easy to get kind of nervous or jittery or anxious,” DuPlessis explained. “Taking a step back once we got into the village and once we got playing—it felt good to be able to take a step back and just be like, ‘this is my experience, I want to enjoy it’ and to shake off the nerves.”

The 24-year-old appeared in three games for Canada at the Tokyo Paralympics averaging over two rebounds in nearly eight minutes.

DuPlessis credited the play of the team’s starters for putting coach Marc Antoine Ducharme in a position to turn to the bench.

“I had a great time playing in both games against Japan. It was awesome,” she said. “I think as a team we worked hard to get ourselves in a position where players could come off the bench and contribute, so I was really excited to be playing both of those games, and I think there were some great passes, some good defensive plays but overall it just felt good to be out there pushing.”

While scrimmaging against the Men’s Next Gen team during training at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre provided good preparation for the Games, DuPlessis admittedly missed competing against other countries in an international tournament.

“Our junior men’s team did a great job of showing up for us this past summer and scrimmaging against us every week, so we were super thankful to have them as competition,” she said. “At the same time, it’s not quite the same as coming into a game where you haven’t scouted the team as thoroughly.

“It was really exciting in that way. It was truer to what I love about sport: adaptability, making a game plan, all that stuff. It was really exciting to be back playing internationally and seeing some of the different looks from teams.”

Fresh off Tip Off Camp in Richmond, B.C. last week, DuPlessis is back at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre fine-tuning her offensive game in preparation for the 2022 season.

“I think a lot of it for me is about having an offensive impact,” DuPlessis said. “I’m pretty tall, and being able to play big and assert my space on offence is something that I’ve really been working on. Playing with the men is a great push during training. I am one of the bigger players in the gym right now, so being able to make those reads and get in the key has been good and translated well at Tip Off Camp with the women too.”