The 18-year-old was first introduced to the Chilliwack Cheetahs by Brad, Ben and Caleb Hagkull
When Keaton MacEachern was looking to return to sport, the Hagkulls introduced him to the Chilliwack Cheetahs wheelchair basketball program.
MacEachern was receiving leukemia treatment when he lost functionality in his legs.
“It’s a toxicity from some medication I was on for leukemia,” MacEachern explained. “After leaving BC Children’s Hospital following my last spinal tap, two weeks later, I started losing the function of my legs, and it went all the way up to my neck at one point. I was able to gain back the upper body function, but not quite the lower body.”
Before the leukemia treatment, MacEachern played soccer, baseball, and football. Looking to fill the void, MacEachern was introduced to wheelchair basketball by Brad Hagkull.
“I went to watch a practice and fell in love with it, started training, and worked my way up,” he said “Ben and Brad helped me the most. The best advice they gave me is to keep going for it and keep improving. When I was training with them, I would try and take what knowledge I could from Ben because he’s trained at a high level for a longer time. I’ve just been learning as much as I can from him and applying it to my game.”
The Chilliwack, B.C. native also attended a ‘Have a Go Day’ where he tried wheelchair racing on a track and sledge hockey. But the speed of the game is what hooked MacEachern to wheelchair basketball.
This season, the 18-year-old represented BC at the Canada Winter Games, played with the BC Orcas at the CWBL Nationals and attended NextGen development camps in Toronto and Vancouver.
The busy schedule represented a return to normalcy for MacEachern post-pandemic.
“It was incredible, all the travelling, I loved it so much,” he said. “Trying to prepare myself for games and the travelling was a lot of fun. We had an incredible coaching staff at the Canada Games with Simon Cass, Marni Abbott-Peter and Tim Frick. It was cool getting to learn from all of them, and then, of course, the results that we got backed up how much work we put in.”
MacEachern was part of the Team BC squad that defeated Alberta 79-32 to win gold in wheelchair basketball at the Canada Games for the first time in tournament history.
“That was really cool. I had a lot of family in the stands as well, because I have family from back east on my dad’s side,” MacEachern said. “It was sweet to have that moment and share it with so many people I love, and the team was incredible, too.”
MacEachern has been trying to sharpen his skills at the NextGen camps with the goal of earning a spot on the Men’s Under-23 Team.
“A lot of it is working on my IQ in the game,” MacEachern said. “I’m trying to learn more advanced concepts and working on picking up the pace. I would love to train with Canada someday; that’s a big jump, but I’m working at it, and the development camps are helping a ton.”
The advice he’s received from U23 head coach Darrell Nordell?
“To sharpen up my picking angles and be a little bit more aggressive in my chair,” said MacEachern.
Off the court, MacEachern is in his second year at the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, B.C. where he’s a Psychology major.
“I’ve always been intrigued by the sports psychology aspect – just how much that helps my game, I think, is really neat,” he said of his career goal.