HALIFAX – A former player in the Nova Scotia Major Midget Hockey League suffered a life-changing injury almost two years ago. He can’t play hockey anymore, so the league decided to help him on the road back to another sport.
Ryan Shay, 20. played midget hockey for the South Shore Mustangs.
But Shay’s life changed drastically in January 2013, when he was in a car crash.
“I went to take a left turn and my car did one or two rolls — I’m not really sure — landing on my side leaving me a C-7, C-8 quadriplegic,” Shay said.
But Shay doesn’t dwell on his new life in a wheelchair; He focuses on the positive. After his operation, he discovered other sports in rehab and found he was pretty good at wheelchair racing. But a racing chair costs $6,000. Tim boyce, now the Halifax McDonald’s midget coach, got the financial ball rolling.
“I sent an E-mail out to all the members of the league and everybody jumped on board pretty quick,” he said.
At pre-season games, teams collected $2,100 and gave the money to Shay.
“I can’t even express my appreciation and how thankful I am for that. It’s a great thing,” said Shay, who plans to put a new chair to good use. He’s hoping to compete for Canada at the 2016 Paralympics in Brazil in the 100 and 200-metre races and discus.
“I want to win medals. I want to set records,” he said. “I want to be on posters. I want to be a role model.”
He’s already represented Canada at international meets, but has spent his own money to go to places like Florida. That could soon change.
“Hopefully I’ll get carded on to Team Canada. They help with funding things like that.”
The young man is trying to be an example for others, even doing some motivational speaking.
“He’s still got that same smile on his face many years ago when I coached him,” said Boyce. “And you know, It’s a great lesson to teach everybody: you can always take a negative and turn it into a positive and seeing how positive he’s been, is something special that I’ll always remember.”
Shay also has goals to become a lawyer someday.
Comments