Perseverance landed the Wonowon, B.C. native on the SMNT
For Bo Hedges, the idea of Wearing the Leaf and representing his country became a reality when he was named a member of Team Canada for the World Junior Championship in 1997 on home soil in Toronto.
It was a full-circle moment for Hedges. Born in Wonowon, B.C., 90 kilometres north of Fort St. John, Hedges was on a family vacation in Southern Ontario, along Lake Erie, in the summer of 1993 when he suffered a spinal cord injury.
Hedges was climbing a tree when he fell about 10 feet and landed on a stump, shattering his spine.
While rehabilitating from the spinal cord injury, Hedges learned about parasport and the Paralympics.
“Right after the accident, I started realizing there was parasport when they introduced you to a bunch of activities in rehab,” Hedges recalled. “The tie into the Paralympics came shortly after that. I followed along a little bit with the Atlanta Games in 1996. That would’ve been the first time I knew of it and started to think, ‘Oh, yeah, there’s wheelchair basketball there,’ and I met a couple of athletes that competed.”
After moving back to Fort St. John, Hedges began playing wheelchair basketball more regularly recreationally. In 1996, he started playing in nearby Prince George in the BC wheelchair basketball league.
While playing in Prince George, Hedges got the call to try out for Team Canada for the upcoming World Junior Championship.
“I was pretty green at that point. I wasn’t very good at basketball, but I was having fun,” Hedges said. “I made the Junior Worlds team in the summer of 1997 and won gold with that group. That’s when I was like, ‘Oh, this is a lot of fun, and this is something I’d like to do more seriously’.”
The 1997 tournament was the first official wheelchair basketball world championship for men under 23. Canada defeated the U.S. for gold, while Australia took home bronze. The tournament was hosted at Humber College.
“It was very cool. It was in Ontario, and I have family here, so they were in attendance watching and supporting me and the team. It was just this really cool experience with the group of guys that came together—a whole bunch of them went on to be on the National Team and do amazing things,” said Hedges. “The experience with the basketball, as well as the experience with the team, was key in terms of really hooking me into the sport.
“Before that, I was going to some tournaments, not training very much and kind of like, ‘I’m doing this, but I don’t know what I want to do’. After Junior Worlds, I was like, ‘Oh, this is cool; this is something that could be a passion for me.’”
Despite his success at the U23 level, it would take another 10 years before Hedges finally made the Senior Men’s National Team.
Hedges routinely attended SMNT camps, including the 2000 Paralympic selection, without earning a roster spot.
“It motivated me. I was pretty green still. I was getting better and starting to do some things, but not going to Sydney motivated me. Then I came close again for the Athens Games in 2004. In between that Kitakyushu, World Championship in Amsterdam – I tried out for all those teams.
“It took me about eight tries of going to the old school selection camps and getting cut at the end of it to finally make the team for the first time in 2007 and go to the Rio Parapan American Games.”
To finally earn the roster spot in 2007, Hedges changed his approach. He moved from Prince George to Vancouver to get better training reps but wasn’t satisfied with just making the team.
Hedges made his Paralympic debut in 2008 in Beijing where Canada won a silver medal, but he knew he could do more.
“I took that next step of dedication, putting all my chips into it, saying, ‘Alright, now is the time—now or never’—and took the leap to see whether I could get there,” Hedges said.
“After Beijing, I was like, ‘Alright, now I’m here, is it enough for me to be here, or do I want to be an instrumental part of the team and play a role in the success versus just being on the bench and being on the team and playing minutes, but not being a key cog?’”
While wearing the country’s colours and representing Canada, Hedges learned about the responsibilities associated with being part of Team Canada.
Hedges credits coaches Jerry Tonello, Paul Bowes and Joe Higgins for instilling the expectations of representing Canada.
“They instilled that reminder that it is an honour and you’re here to represent,” he said. “You’re wearing the Canada t-shirts, the Team Canada gear. People are coming up to you saying, ‘Hi’ and wanting to talk. So you’re trying to represent Canada the best way on and off the court, cleaning up after yourself, and doing all those things. You go out, fight hard on the court, and play a gritty game.
“Those first times at Parapans, Paralympics, the World Championships, or Junior Worlds—those first ones are always unique. When you’re wheeling on to the court or going into the opening ceremonies at those different events, it’s always special.”
With a full quad under his belt, Hedges was ready to reach the mountain top at the London Paralympics.
After finishing seventh at the 2010 Worlds and losing in the gold medal game in 2008, Hedges saw other countries viewing Canada as a team on the decline.
With the lack of recent success, Hedges admitted the SMNT went into the 2012 Paralympics, realizing they were no longer considered favourites to medal.
“It was amazing to get there with that group of guys. We’d all been together for a long time. We knew that after London, some guys would retire and move on. It was kind of like now or never,” Hedges recalled.
Canada defeated Australia in the gold medal game to win gold for the third time in four Paralympic Games.
“For me, personally, it was all those years of dedication, figuring it out, and finally putting all the pieces together in that stretch from Beijing to London to become that piece that could start a gold medal game, play big minutes, contribute points, and defensively do all of those things right. It was a little bit of validation.”