Nik Goncin’s passion for sport is fueled by its competitive nature and the goal setting involved.
Born in Sarajevo, Goncin and his family moved to Regina, Sask. when Goncin was two. Goncin’s parents had him involved in everything from gymnastics to basketball and tennis growing up.
“I think being competitive and being able to have goal setting be in the forefront of my life whether it was a tournament coming up, something I was training for, a team I wanted to make – you’re always moving forward,” Goncin explained. “I think that desire to move forward has kept me in sport for so long.”
Goncin’s love for sport began with gymnastics. Basketball games with neighbours on the street evolved to Goncin playing organized basketball when he was eight. Then in his teens, he began playing tennis competitively.
His goals with sports took a turn in 2006 when he lost his left leg to cancer. Though he didn’t realize it then, sports played a pivotal role in how Goncin dealt with his cancer diagnosis.
“I don’t think I was self-aware enough to know that sport would play such a large part in the rehabilitation,” said Goncin. “Looking back at it, I think it was a forefront to how I dealt with what happened. I was always like this, but after losing my leg, I felt I had something to prove.”
Goncin was introduced to wheelchair basketball as a 16-year-old through high school gym class. He credits Mike Brady, and his persistence, for getting him to try wheelchair basketball initially.
“He was so persistent, incredibly persistent,” Goncin recalled. “There is a stigma behind being in a wheelchair, and there was more so back a decade ago. I definitely felt that, and he pushed for me to come and try wheelchair basketball. If it wasn’t for his pushiness, I don’t know if I’d be playing wheelchair basketball or if I would have even tried the sport.”
It wasn’t until his first wheelchair basketball practice at the Wascana Rehabilitation Centre in Regina, Sask. that Goncin realized the sport could fuel his competitive itch.
“That was the first time I worked out since I lost my leg, and I was toast. I gave everything. I was done,” Goncin said. “Everything else, I couldn’t really push myself hard enough to make myself feel like physically out of it.
“That’s why I fell in love with it, I’m pretty sure. It was just like, ‘Oh wow, I can still do this.’”
While it was Brady who pushed Goncin to try the sport, the 30-year-old credits Mike Frogley for helping him realize his full potential in the game.
Frogley pushed Goncin to look at long-term goals with the sport.
“He was just like, ‘Hey, like, this is not just recreational; you could do this for real, you can make the national team and go to university,’” Goncin said. “He was on my case about going to the University of Illinois. I don’t know if I would have gotten a varsity scholarship or any of that if it wasn’t for his insight into the future.
“The goals that I was setting were very short-term. Frog was the first to say, ‘Hey, there’s a long-term vision here. Basketball doesn’t always last forever.’ So his thought was, ‘Let’s do academics as well, so you have a backup plan or a fallback plan for when basketball ceases to exist,’ which hasn’t happened yet. Hopefully, it doesn’t happen for a while.”
Goncin has represented Canada at the Paralympics in 2016 and 2020. He was also part of Team Canada’s Senior Men’s National Team for the 2015 and 2019 Parapan American Games. Most recently, Goncin helped Canada qualify for the IWBF World Championships at the Americas Cup in Brazil.
Despite the accomplishments, Goncin still feels he has a way to go before reaching his full potential in the game.
“I think I have not hit my peak yet. I think that’s what keeps me in it still,” he said. “If I was to leave right now, I would always have that little piece of me that would be like, ‘Did you really peak? Did you really do everything you could to be as good as you could have been?’ I don’t think I’m there yet. That definitely keeps me hungry.”