#75 Vancouver Riptide (AUDL), #75 Furious George (Club)

Like a good Canadian boy, Joel was on the ice playing hockey at the age of 2. He was dangling, and sniping bar downs long before he knew what a frisbee was. Joel was never exceptional at one sport, but played every sport he could throughout his youth. He tried out for his high school ultimate team in grade 11 and made the ‘B’ team. In grade 12 he made the A team, and his high school placed 3rd in the provincial championships. That same high school team created a competitive junior team to compete in the Canadian Ultimate Championships in the summer of 2007 in Toronto. Joel did not make that team. 

“All my friends were on that team, and not being selected was super NOT DECE. Toronto was so close to my hometown; it would have been awesome to play with all my high school friends in that tournament. Anyways, that pissed me off. I worked hard over the next few months, and by the time the championships came around they were like ‘Hey, do you want to play with us now?’ but nah, I was playing on the Barrie competitive men’s team so I said “nope!”. After seeing how much I improved with just a little bit of effort, I decided I would just keep trying harder and see how far I could push myself.”

- Joel Bellavance

Since then, Joel played 4 years of University Ultimate in Canada and won the Canadian University Ultimate Championships in 2009 with Carleton University. 

Joel moved to Vancouver in 2011 and has played 4 seasons with Furious George (2012-2015), two seasons with the MLU Nighthawks (2013-2014) and one season with the Vancouver Riptide in the AUDL. Joel was fifth in assists in the AUDL in 2015, he finished the season with a 96% completion rate, 58 assists and 19 goals.