Turning an injury into an opportunity

“To have one [an injury] that was so life-changing was a surprise.”

A LIFE IN SPORTS

Born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Sagal said he played sports his entire life leading up to the day of his injury. At age 33, he travelled to New Zealand to work at a surf camp. He ended up practicing with a local rugby team in the town of Tairua. He remarked that, “to me, it was a chance to play with some of the best in the world.”

“I kind of took to the game pretty quick and loved it.”

Eventually, Sagal was asked to come back the next season and suit up for the team on a full-time paid basis. A month before flying out to start his play with the team, he suffered his life-altering injury.

Fortunately, this did not halt his future in sports. Sagal told LNN that his best friend was an adaptive coach with a para-Alpine team, which led to his foray into the world of adaptive sports.

He said, “what was really helpful for me was I was able to get in touch with a lot of athletes, very early on in my recovery and I knew sports was going to be a very instrumental part of my life still and that’s what kind of helped me.”

“It helped shift the focus from this being a career-ending injury to a career-altering sports injury, in the sense of like, I could still pursue sports, I could still have an active life. It was just going to take time to learn my new body.”

ROCKY MOUNTAIN ADAPTIVE

Sagal noted that his injury and early experiences in adaptive sports made him realize “how poorly our world is designed for accessibility and universitality, be it visual impairment, mobility issues, we just don’t have the infrastructure set up and we don’t have an understanding of how poorly designed we are for people.”

“To me, that was really hard. I wasn’t looking for help, I was looking for empowerment and it was very tough to find outside.” Eventually, Sagal discovered Rocky Mountain Adaptive (RMA), a non-profit based out of Canmore, which promotes awareness for adaptive sports and raises funds to purchase sporting equipment.

“I found the people at Rocky Mountain Adaptive and they opened my eyes to what accessibility and adaptive sport could be like. It was life changing.”

He said the team at RMA helped him rediscover his joy for sports, “in the sense that I was able to get into adaptive mountain biking and they helped me get to the national championships for that this past summer.”

Through RMA, Sagal was also able to get involved in rowing and sit-skiing, putting him back on the slopes where his life was first changed.

“What I love about the sports world is that the sports environment and community is a very inclusive community, by design. That’s where I found a much more happy environment as opposed to day to day life.”

His first day riding with RMA, Sagal rode on a piece of mountain biking equipment called “the Bowhead Reach”.

“This piece of equipment is actually made here in Calgary by a fellow adaptive athlete by the name of Christian Bagg. He created it and it’s amazing.”

Sagal commented that, “it was the first piece of adaptive equipment I rode where I forgot, not only did I forget that I was paralyzed but I didn’t even feel like I was limited in my opportunities. I still remember screaming out to Jamie [McCulloch], the executive director, ‘I don’t even feel paralyzed in this thing’, so then from there, Rocky Mountain Adaptive was very crucial in creating, just an environment where I wanted to pursue sports again.”

LOCAL CONNECTION

Prior to his accident, Sagal spent the better part of his twenties in Lethbridge, having attended Lethbridge College from 2003 to 2006 and the University of Lethbridge from 2007 to 2009.

Along with fellow U of L alum Marshall Weinberger, Sagal started Operation APA in an effort to raise funds for RMA and raise awareness of the world of adaptive sports.

READ MORE: U of L fraternity launches new positivity movement

He said, “in 2020, after a year of COVID, I could just tell the world wasn’t happy. I just felt like there was a void that could be filled with a project that was focusing purely on just authentic, positive awareness and that’s what APA stands for.”

Sagal noted that RMA has four Bowheads. Through Operation APA, they raised enough funds to purchase a fifth Bowhead for RMA and “this past winter, we raised enough funds now, so we raised over $26,000 so we were able to purchase two pieces of adaptive equipment – a sit-ski and a [Bowhead] Reach.”

“Retail on the Reach would be about $18,000 U.S., and retail on the sit-ski was about $10,000 U.S.”

He added, “it’s a pretty huge barrier to entry with that cost and then once you have those pieces of equipment, there’s a lot to learn on how to use them and that’s where Rocky Mountain Adaptive comes in.”

“Their mission is to really help get butts in the seat, as Jamie likes to say, as well as encourage people to then go out and get their own equipment down the road.”

Sagal believes the work done by RMA allows help for those who want it “and it’s there to empower those who want to go further as well. It really puts the ball back in the person’s court.”

“One thing I love about Rocky Mountain Adaptive is it helps the whole spectrum of people who need adaptation, from cancer survivors with lower limb amputations, to those who are visibly impaired, to people like myself with spinal cord injuries, to people with neuro cognitive needs. They’re able to help everyone.”

LATEST INITIATIVE

Sagal is currently taking part in the ShredAbility initiative this year.

It’s an all-mountain ski and snowboard treasure hunt aimed at people of all abilities and takes place April 10, 2022 at the Sunshine Ski Resort, where Sagal suffered his accident three years ago.

All money raised through the fundraiser will go back to RMA. More details about the initiative are available here and here.

Sagal told LNN, “when I came across Rocky Mountain Adaptive in 2020, it was huge for me to experience freedom. Prior to finding Rocky Mountain Adaptive for me, I wasn’t in the best place mentally or physically.”

“Learning to deal with the injury was one thing, learning to deal with the world outside of the hospital was a whole other thing.”

Additionally, Sagal has qualified for a training camp in Victoria, B.C. with Rowing Canada next month.

He encourages everyone to get involved and learn more about the adaptive sports community.

“I think more likely than not, you’ll be impressed with how much it affects your life and how much it affects the people’s lives, be it financially helping if you’re able to or if you have the time to volunteer and work with them, I think those are equally if not more important sometimes than that financial donation because it really allows us to hear first-hand from us what our stories are.”

“I know whenever I’ve come off the ski hill with someone, the messaging from the person that I’ve skied with who has been a volunteer has always been grateful for opening my eyes to what an un-adaptive world we live in and how much I want to help and that would be the biggest ask. That’s kind of what the ultimate goal of Operation APA is. It’s great that we can get equipment into Rocky Mountain’s hands but at the end of the day, we always judged our success by how much of a positive feedback we got back from the community.”

More details on Operation APA are available here and further details about RMA can be found here.

by Justin Goulet

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Turning an injury into an opportunity

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