The 27-year-old is the High Performance Wheelchair Basketball coach at SWSA

Wheelchair basketball was always part of Jared Sajtos’ life growing up. Sajtos’ father, Rob Sajtos, started playing wheelchair basketball following his accident in 1984 and introduced his sons Jonathan and Jared to the game at an early age.

Sajtos also played soccer and football growing up but called basketball his most important sport.

“I first started playing minis as a kid in my dad’s chair – it was a class 1.0 chair, so a little different than what I use now, but my dad had a big influence on my wheelchair basketball life,” Sajtos said.

While his dad was influential in introducing him to the game, Sajtos stuck with the sport for multiple reasons.

“My dad played and coached for a lot of years. As I grew up, I played with my brother as well – we both played for many years,” Sajtos explained. “The wheelchair basketball community is another reason. It’s a smaller sport. As a result, the community is a lot tighter. You get to know people locally and from other places in the country. You see them all the time. You play with and against the same players for 15-20 years, and it’s good to build relationships that way too.”

As an athlete, Sajtos represented Saskatchewan at three Canada Winter Games before turning to coaching and joining his dad on the bench at the 2023 Canada Winter Games in Charlottetown.

“In 2011, I didn’t really have a huge role,” he said. “I was quite young and new to the team, but there are always guys you play with in the cycle that stick around. Through 2015, we still had some of the same core guys – high-level players like Nik Goncin. Then we retooled for 2019.

“I still practice and play with those guys I played with in 2011.”

Though he never considered coaching as a younger athlete, it allowed him to stay involved in the sport he loves.

“I didn’t like coaching when I was younger, I’d rather play. I didn’t want to think too much,” Sajtos explained. “Once I aged out of juniors as an athlete, I just wanted to stay involved, and coaching was the next step. I got a lot more comfortable with it, and I enjoy it now. I’ve relaxed a little bit.”

The 27-year-old didn’t have to look far for a coaching mentor. Rob Sajtos coached wheelchair basketball for 20 years and has a wealth of knowledge to pass along to his son.

“He is the most influential coach in my life,” Sajtos said. “I have had lots of opportunity to work with great coaches across the country, so there’s more than one mentor, but he is the primary one that I’ve learned the most from and spent the most time with, and he’s had the biggest influence on my coaching career for sure.”

The Saskatoon native is now the High Performance Wheelchair Basketball coach at the Saskatchewan Wheelchair Sports Association, which has him responsible for growing the game and building programs in the province.

“It’s always good when you can get a job doing something you love, and wheelchair basketball has been my love for a long time, so it’s great being involved with the day-to-day work and keeping the programs going,” he said. “It’s a good staff here, and they help me a lot too.”

Sajtos’ responsibilities include rebuilding the provincial junior team as a new Canada Games cycle begins in 2024.

Regina will play host to the Junior West Championship in March.

“The process is a little new to me. I’ve been part of it before, but never to this extent,” Sajtos said. “I’m realizing how much work goes in behind the scenes to make these events run right. As an athlete, or an early entry coach, you show up, and do your team prep work.

“In my role, I have to make sure the event is ready to go, get all the volunteers booked and all that kind of stuff. It’s a lot a lot of work behind the scenes, but it’s been good.”

On the court, with just three returning players from the previous Canada Games cycle, Sajtos is looking to build the next crop of wheelchair basketball talent in the province.

“It’ll be a little bit more of a developmental first year or two for us, but we have some talented players coming up, and we get to see what they can do at junior regionals,” said Sajtos. “It’s a process building a team from fairly new and inexperienced athletes to, hopefully, competitive and a little more experienced in time for Canada Games in 2027.”