SUNDRE – Finding new opportunities in the face of a terrible, life-altering tragedy is no easy feat, but nevertheless achievable with the right attitude.
Ryan Straschnitzki is certainly a living example.
The former Humboldt Bronco, who was left paralyzed from the chest down following the April 2018 collision in Saskatchewan that claimed the lives of 16 players as well as officials and injured 13 others including himself, imparted the importance of embracing a growth mindset in overcoming adversity on Friday, April 14 during a presentation at the Sundre Arts Centre.
Organizers had initially considered the Sundre Community Centre, but later determined stage access was inadequate.
“Originally, we had booked the Sundre Community Centre gym,” said Cherie Johnson, the Greenwood Neighbourhood Place (GNP) Society’s program coordinator.
“This venue checked off all of the boxes we thought, but as we explored options for stage access for Ryan...we realized that this is a barrier that this facility faces,” Johnson told the Albertan by email in response to questions.
The presentation was organized and sponsored by Family and Community Support Services, GNP, and the Sundre Hospital Futures Committee.
“It started with a conversation between several local community organizations with an idea to bring a meaningful speaker to Sundre to promote mental health awareness and benefits towards wellness,” said Johnson. “We know every single one of us can use inspiring stories about resiliency, and it gives us hope that we too can overcome difficulties and sometimes even tragedy.”
And Straschnitzki’s life experience definitely fit the bill.
“My entire life has revolved around upset and adversity and sort of developing that mindset; probably not by choice but in order to do so – if I wanted to succeed – I had to find a way to overcome that,” Straschnitzki told the Albertan ahead of the presentation.
“And a lot of that started with my mindset and mentality,” he said.
Mountain View County Coun. Gord Krebs, whose own son Cody is on a difficult road to recovery after suffering a broken neck in a collision, introduced Straschnitzki to an all-ages crowd of nearly 100 people.
Krebs said that while health-care staff at the hospital have excelled at treating his son, there was a noticeable absence of support available to family and friends. Life’s twists and turns eventually led to connecting with Straschnitzki, who started an organization called Straz Strong Foundation to help empower others to put mind over matter on their path to rebuilding a new life in the wake of tragedy.
“Our whole world turned around that day,” said Krebs, adding that while Straschnitzki might come across as ordinary, the 23-year-old is an extraordinary individual and honest speaker who shares a message of hope that inspires confidence.
“He’s far from normal. He most definitely is a super human,” the councillor said.
Exuding on the arts centre’s stage a humble, down-to-earth confidence completely void of braggadocio, Straschnitzki spoke of the adversity he strived to overcome even before a truck slammed into his team’s bus and irreversibly altered the course of his life.
He started his presentation with the adage coined by Alexander Graham Bell that when one door closes, another opens; but we so often tend to look so long and regretfully at the closed door that we do not see another that’s opened. That led to him discussing the differences between a fixed as opposed to growth mindset.
“At some point, I think everyone is going to face adversity at some capacity,” he said during the interview in response to what he hopes those who attended took away from his presentation.
“I think it’s important to understand that there are tools on how to overcome that. There are certainly times where you will have to figure it out on your own, but if you have some sort of guidance and tools to help overcome and facilitate that, then I think it’s going to be a lot easier.”
He told the crowd about his journey to becoming a Bronco; itself a regularly uncertain path marred by numerous trials and tribulations that on more than one occasion allowed sabotaging self-doubt to seep into his thoughts.
Those experiences, alongside crucial support from family including his father Tom, helped him reframe his mind to shape an unshakeable look-forward attitude that’s focused on future possibilities as opposed to past disappointments.
That philosophical foundation would prove invaluable in the fallout of the ill-fated crash that initially left him feeling helpless and hopeless upon being told by doctors he had a less than two per cent chance of ever walking again.
As he lay on the hospital bed mentally wrestling negative thoughts upon reaching his lowest point, Straschnitzki said he began to focus on the growth mindset that through hard work and perseverance had paid off in the past. That required mustering up the motivation to move forward, which tends to be different for everyone, he said.
“Whatever gets you out of bed in the morning, is your motivation,” he told the crowd, adding that motivation at the time for him was his team.
Krebs later suggested to a round of applause that perhaps Straschnitzki’s gift was less about athleticism, trophies and titles, and more about being an inspirational and guiding presence who helps others.
“He’s inspiring my son,” the councillor said, adding individuals like Straschnitzki and Cody “don’t want to be treated with kids’ gloves.”
They are still the same people they were before, capable of achieving just about anything they set their minds to, he said.
“In lots of ways they’re better than we are,” he said.
Straschnitzki talked about his time on Team Canada’s development roster for sled hockey, which has also been met with adversity.
“Actually, just recently I got cut from their last camp,” he told the Albertan. “I guess management sort of said my disability was holding me back; so, there’s another example of adversity where I’m going to have to kind of prove them wrong and continue to work hard.”
Not one to obsess over the past with his focus set firmly on the future, he remains undaunted.
“I’m going to continue to try for 2026,” he said. “In the meantime, I’m also going to take up wheelchair basketball and other sports as well I think.”
Perhaps the biggest challenge has been coming to terms with the fact that as passionate as he as about sports, it’s no longer a viable career path, he told the Albertan.
But finding a new purpose by pushing through the void of uncertainty toward discovery into “new areas that I wasn’t necessarily comfortable with before, has been the most rewarding,” he added.
Since the early diagnosis from doctors that left him dismayed by the chances against his walking ever again, Straschnitzki has defied the odds and developed a limited ability to move his legs, even capable of taking a few steps assisted by a walker and physiotherapists.
However, largely experiencing life from the confines of a wheelchair for the past fives years has also opened his eyes to the challenges long faced by people with disabilities or limited mobility, and has also branched out into advocacy work to raise awareness for the need to improve accessibility throughout the province.
“I’ve just finished the Rick Hansen (Foundation) certification course for accessibility, architecture and consulting,” he told the Albertan.
“So essentially now, I have more of a platform and more of a resume to go into businesses and kind of give them a rating score and help them create change; either renovate or build new in a more accessible, universally-designed way.”
A principle design consideration is gaining access into a building itself, he said, adding that begins with adequate parking accommodations, wide-open doorways and automatic doors.
“Little things like that we got to focus on before actually entering the building,” he said, adding a lot of buildings in Calgary were grandfathered in by Canadian accessibility standards years ago.
“And now that times have changed, and people require more assistance and needs, I think it’s important to look at what can be added. I think a lot of the times, it goes overlooked,” he said. “Before my accident, I didn’t think about it at all. Now that I’ve lived this for five years, it’s more common than not that I started to see it everywhere.”
Asked during a question period following his presentation how he processed and moved passed the grief he endured, Straschnitzki candidly confessed that not every day is going to be a good day, and that emotional flashbacks can sometimes be overpowering. But learning over time to be more mindful helped establish a greater level of control over his thoughts.
Another key to navigating through grief is simply being willing to talk about one’s feelings with friends and family, which he admitted was initially among the biggest hurdles he faced.
Responding to another question about his thoughts on the truck driver who crashed into the Bronco’s bus, he expressed a blameless and profound level of understanding void of even a hint of vengeful or hateful sentiments.
“It’s not all just him,” Straschnitzki said.
Any number of other factors could have prevented the fatal collision that day, he said, adding to a round of applause that there was much more to the picture than the one mistake and that all that matters now is moving forward.
The youngest member of the crowd to ask a question, nine-year-old Logan Denison from Bergen, wanted to know if the first time Straschnitzki was in a sled he lamented his lost hockey career, or instead looked optimistically toward the possibility of winning gold in a new athletic discipline.
Impressed by the well-articulated youth’s question, Straschnitzki said the first time in a sled certainly was a sobering reminder he would likely never again play stand up hockey, but that he nevertheless also enthusiastically embraced the opportunity to learn sled hockey, along the way keeping alive the dream of some day winning a gold medal.
Also asked whether the anniversary of a tragedy like the crash represents a reminder of the hurt or perhaps provides an opportunity for self-reflection and healing, Straschnitzki said it depends on the person, but added that day can be an emotional roller coaster.
Either way, there’s no sense dwelling on what happened as there’s no going back in time to change things; one can only move forward, he said.
He also expressed gratitude both for the organizers of Friday’s presentation as well as those who attended to hear his story.
“Their support, it shows. And it helps me do everything, every day,” he said.
