Prince George crowd shows its support for Paralympian Joel Ewert

Prince George gave Joel Ewert a hometown sendoff Friday morning, the day before he leaves for Paris and the Paralympics wheelchair rugby tournament, and it was only fitting the venue picked for well-wishers to show their support was Canada Games Plaza.

Back in 2015, when Prince George hosted the Canada Winter Games, a 15-year-old Ewert was one of the prominent local athletes, competing for Team BC in wheelchair basketball and that set the tone for two more Canada Games competitions, including a gold-medal win for B.C. in 2023 in Prince Edward Island.

Ewert, 24, who was born with cerebral palsy, started playing wheelchair basketball at age 5. He grew up a two-sport athlete, also excelling at rugby, and the nation took notice.

After he helped Canada to a 10th-place finish at the U23 world wheelchair basketball championship in Thailand in 2021, the pursuit of excellence in rugby took over, and look what that got him – a spot on the roster of Team Canada in the Paralympic Games.

“It’s pretty cool to see everybody come out to this, a lot of different people from a lot of areas of my life, and it just puts into perspective how important it is to  have a good support system and how many people have helped you along the way,” said Ewert.

“As a kid with a disability growing up, the Paralympics is the goal. There’s no NHL, no MLB, you’re thinking about going to Paralympics, and to be able to see that come true is really cool.”

Canada, ranked fifth in the world, opens the eight-team Paralympic tournament on Thursday, Aug. 29 (4:20 a.m. PT) against the second-ranked Americans.

Canada is part of the A Pool with the U.S., Japan and Germany. The top-ranked Australians make up the B Pool with Great Britain, France and Denmark.

Canada qualified with a second-place finish at the last-chance tournament in March in New Zealand.

“We’re competitive and experienced, with a good blend of veterans and young guys, and I think we’re going to be pushing for a medal,” said Ewert, who first took up rugby when he was 15. “Hopefully I’ll bring home some hardware to Prince George.

“There’s a lot of parity at the top in the world and hopefully we can make some waves in Paris and end up on the top.”

One of three players on the 12-player squad heading into his first Paralympics, Ewert has been training with some of his Team Canada teammates all summer in Victoria.

Built brawny and with an abundance of upper-body strength honed in the gym and on the court, Ewert says rugby is more physical than basketball. Given the choice he prefers rugby.

“There a lot of chair-to-chair (contact), it’s pretty high-paced and it’s loud out there when people are running into each other,” he said. “I think I like rugby better, I get to be a ball-handler so you get a bit more of the shine, as opposed to my role in basketball where I was sort of a picker and sealer, setting up plays.”

Ewert watched TV coverage of the Olympics that wrapped up Aug. 8 and expects Paris will excel once again as hosts of the 11 days of Paralympics competitions. He leaves for Paris on Saturday and plans to be part of the opening ceremony on Wednesday, Aug. 28.

“Seeing the energy of the athletes and seeing all kinds  of all kinds different stories from the underdogs to the favourites being able to pull it out on top, that’s what people love about sport, the unpredictability,” he said.

Joel will have his Prince George family with him in Paris to provide a boost from the stands during his games, including his mom and dad, Bonita and Jim, brother Carl, Joel’s girlfriend, Kendall Scheck, her sister Madison and their mom Tracey.

“A lot of the Team Canada families will be coming to cheer them on and it’s going to be a competitive event because all the teams are close,” said Jim Ewert. “It’s going to be a great experience.”

MLA Shirley Bond told the crowd about the dedication it took from Bonita and Jim to make those regular trips to the Lower Mainland for training camps and competitions so Joel could get better as an athlete, building on the skills his first coach, Pat Harris, taught him when he was introduced to basketball.

“It’s a lot of hard work from him and it takes a village of family and friends supporting him,” said Bonita. “He has family in Vancouver, so whenever he went down there for tournament we would stay with them. All his hard work has paid off. Everyone says you have to move away but you don’t. We had to travel a lot, but I think that’s what kept him grounded. He still had his friends and community and that really helped. Whereas if he went away to school, you don’t know your community.”

Preliminary-round games are set for Aug. 29-31, with semifinals Sept. 2 and medal games Sept. 3. Canada’s games will be streamed live on the CBC website and will also shown on CBC TV and on the CBC Gem app. Ewert said he will be sure to send links to the broadcasts on his Facebook site.

Ewert has been accepted into UNBC’s medical school, which starts as soon as he gets back from Paris.

Two other people Prince George connections will be in Paris as Paralympics athletes, both in wheelchair basketball.

Kady Dandeneau of Pender Island, who played for the UNBC Timberwolves as an all-star standup player from 2007-13, is heading to her second Paralympics competition playing for the women’s team, as is Team Canada men’s team captain Bo Hedges, who also played at the 2020 Games in Tokyo.