Message of being smart

Being in a wheelchair does not mean the end of sports.

That was one of the messages Mike Brady gave to students at Yorkton Regional High School Friday, as he gave students a taste of wheelchair rugby.

The second message was much more direct though.

"My goal is to someday end up stopping somebody from ending up in a wheelchair," he said. "I don't want them joining the dumb club."

Brady explained that anytime somebody ends up in a wheelchair it is almost always a case of somebody having done something dumb, like not having done up their seat belt.

Brady said it's not good to "drive like a maniac" thinking a girl is "going to giggle and say it's cool." He said too often it leads to accidents, and passengers end up dead while the stunting driver ends up in a wheelchair. He said in Regina alone he knows five guys that killed their girlfriends all of who never made it to 20-years-old.

"They didn't respect their girlfriends," he said.

Brady said girls need to have a voice too. They have to tell their boyfriends "don't drive like this. I don't want to die."

It is important to be wise at the wheel because once in a wheelchair, things people take for granted, like walking hand-in-hand with their girlfriend is lot, he said.

"I don't get to do that," he said.

Student Katelynn Breitkreuz a female hockey player from Springside, said it was a poignant message.

"Mike's message had a lot of truth to it," he said.

Brady is a member of the Paratroopers, a wheelchair basketball club in Regina. He said he spends a fair amount of time visiting schools.

"I let them have some fun in the chairs," he said, nodding toward the specially designed sport chairs which have slanted wheels so the wider base provides greater stability, and being narrower at the top prevents hands being pinched between chairs.

In terms of sports, Brady said playing wheelchair basketball, or rugby, as highlighted in the film Murderball, is a huge step in many people coming to terms with being in a wheelchair.

It was important for Brady, who has been in a wheelchair for nearly 29 years.

"I got hurt driving a truck in the oil patch," he said, adding sports gave him not just an outlet for activity, but also put him in touch with others who had gone through the same adjustments he was going through.

"What playing sports does is put you in touch with people in chairs," he said, adding they become a conduit of information.

After ending up in a chair Brady said people are left with literally dozens of questions. "Can I still drive a car? Can I have sex? Can I still drink a beer?"

Players become a sort of support group for newcomers, helping them adapt to life in a wheelchair.

The Paratroopers program has both a mens' program, and one targeted at youth.

"Not all the kids are wheelchair users," said Brady, but they do have conditions which prevent them from running, which precludes them from most sports. He said they have participants with spina bifida, muscular dystrophy and cerebral palsy.

Brady said the young people become very good at the sport, and that gives them a sense of self-confidence which they may not find in other activities.

"It gives these kids self esteem," he said. "They can say 'I am good at something'. It's self esteem and pride in what they're doing."

Breitkreuz said the sport experience was interesting too.

"This was a great experience, something that I had never thought of doing before," she said. "It was lots of fun, a real eye-opener, it was more difficult to operate a wheel-chair than I thought it would be. Operating one of these athletic chairs takes a lot of upper body and core strength."