Sopotyk turned to hoops following a snowboarding accident
Sports were always a big part of Kyrell Sopotyk’s life growing up. The Aberdeen, Sask. native played everything from basketball to volleyball and ran track and field in high school.
Sopotyk’s sport of choice was on the ice, where he spent two seasons playing with the Western Hockey League’s Kamloops Blazers. However, Sopotyk’s hockey career abruptly ended in January 2021 when he suffered a spinal cord injury in a snowboarding accident at Table Mountain near North Battleford, Sask.
“Honestly, I just had a fluke fall,” Sopotyk recalled. “I ended up getting knocked out. Took a fall, don’t really remember it. I woke up and right away knew I suffered a spinal cord injury as I had no movement below my T-5 vertebrae.”
Knowing Sopotyk came from an athletic background, his recreational therapist encouraged him to try a variety of adaptive sports as part of his rehabilitation. However, the 20-year-old admits he wasn’t immediately sold on wheelchair basketball.
“I actually tried it in rehab when I was in the hospital, but I was by myself, so wasn’t very enjoyable,” Sopotyk said. “Rob Sajtos sent me a text when I was out of the hospital and just said, ‘Hey, I’m the coach, wondering if you’d be willing to come out and try wheelchair basketball.’ So I went out one Tuesday evening and tried it, met some of the other players, and kept going out ever since.”
In addition to wheelchair basketball, Sopotyk has competed in wheelchair racing, where he won a bronze medal for Saskatchewan in the male 1,500-metre wheelchair race at the Canada Summer Games in August.
“When I was in the hospital, when I knew para-athletics was going to be something I would be interested in moving forward, I just started watching videos of different sports,” Sopotyk explained. “I saw wheelchair racing and thought that it’d be something I’d be interested in, so I just got in touch with the coach in Saskatchewan, and I was able to get out and try it.”
For Sopotyk, competing in wheelchair basketball has helped him fill a void left by hockey following his accident.
“Sports has been a big part of my life,” he said. “Now, moving forward since my spinal cord injury, being able to still compete at this high level and be keep me busy and train for wheelchair basketball has definitely filled a void for me.”
Sopotyk, who began playing wheelchair basketball in October 2021, finally got to test his skills in a competitive environment at the CWBL Nationals in Montreal and then the Junior Nationals in Charlottetown, P.E.I.
Sopotyk and his Club 99 teammates finished fifth in Division 2 at the CWBL Nationals. In Charlottetown, Sopotyk was rewarded for his play as he was named a tournament all-star at the Junior Nationals.
“It definitely was enjoyable,” said Sopotyk. “Also, getting to travel to different cities, being able to head out east and go to those tournaments was fun. Competing against other people across the country – was a good experience. You can only learn from that going forward.”