The Lorette, Man native, was named Program Coordinator last September
Growing up in Manitoba, Joey Johnson had the opportunity to try a variety of adaptive sports, from tennis to track and wheelchair basketball; now, the 46-year-old is giving back to the next generation of athletes in his home province.
Johnson was named Program Coordinator at the Manitoba Wheelchair Sports Association (MWSA) last September and is working on raising awareness for adaptive sports in the province.
“Being a smaller province population-wise, we struggle to recruit athletes at times,” Johnson explained. “Right now, we are pretty good. We have a couple of good basketball coaches in place, and we have a good rugby coach in place.
“We just have to build and expand those programs to attract more kids and get them more involved. When I was growing up, I was very fortunate; it was kind of the heyday of adaptive sport in Manitoba, and we had very strong programs in place. You name a sport; I had the opportunity to try it. We aren’t quite there, currently, but I would love to see it, get back to that point, then allow and enable children with disabilities the opportunity to try all sports.”
In his role, Johnson oversees school promotions which involves taking wheelchairs to local schools, getting kids in chairs, and supporting programs MWSA is currently operating, including both the Wheelchair Basketball and Wheelchair Rugby programs.
Like able-bodied sports, Johnson calls the adaptive sports world “cyclical” in terms of enrollment and participation, adding that MWSA faces similar challenges as its able-bodied counterpart.
“Even in the able-bodied world, it’s tough to keep kids playing,” he said. “Female sports have a challenging time, once they hit their mid-teen years, to keep them engaged in sport. It’s no different in the adaptive world, where we have a small population to pick from. We have to offer those programs that are enticing to keep them coming back.”
Prior to starring with the Canadian Men’s Wheelchair Basketball team, where he competed in five Paralympic Games, winning three Gold Medals and a Silver Medal, the Lorette, Man. native, grew up in the MWSA programs.
When Johnson saw the MWSA job posting, he saw it as an opportunity to give back to the program that helped him have success with the National Team and professionally in Australia and Germany, where he led the RSV-Lahn Dill club team to multiple European championships.
“That’s the fulfilling part for me because I know what MWSA did for me and how it was life-changing, having those opportunities to play sports,” Johnson said. “It really pains me to think that there could be a kid here in Manitoba that didn’t receive those opportunities or isn’t aware of those opportunities. I kind of have to challenge myself to be like, ‘Alright, now it’s my turn to carry the torch’ and to help provide these opportunities for these kids and to make everyone aware that these programs exist.”
His role with MWSA is in addition to his coaching role with the Canadian Men’s National Team where he serves as an assistant coach on Matteo Feriani’s staff.
Johnson, who became the first Paralympic athlete to be inducted into the Manitoba Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013 and was inducted into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame in 2016, said coaching was a natural transition once shoulder and back problems prevented him from playing.
“I’ve always had a bit of that, in me, even as a player, like a lot of teams I played on, I’d be a player-coach,” said Johnson, who also served as an assistant coach with Great Britain’s men’s Wheelchair Basketball team at the 2016 Paralympics. “Once I learned a skill, I enjoyed passing that on to my teammates to help make my team better because obviously, the stronger everyone else is on the team, the stronger our team is going to be.”
Johnson refers to the coaching opportunity with the Canadian National Team as a full-circle experience, having joined the program as a player while still a teenager.
“It’s a different experience. I’ve always respected the coaches I had going through all those games,” he said. “I know the amount of work that goes into the video breakdown, the strategy, the planning, all of that. It’s different sitting there as a coach and having no control. You instill the knowledge, you instill a game plan, and then you have to sit there and watch, and hopefully, the players grasp it, which translates into something good on the court.”
Whether he’s coaching young athletes on the National Team or trying to recruit new players in his role with the MWSA, Johnson, inducted to the Canadian Paralympic Hall of Fame in 2019, said he doesn’t have a recruiting pitch; instead, he shares his experiences as a player.
“I think when they hear me talk about it, they hear that passion in my voice, they hear that excitement that I had while I played the game in retelling those stories to them. I think it sells itself,” Johnson said. “The club team I played for in Germany, they always say it’s the fastest game on wheels, and it that kind of sells.”