“Mindset was the biggest thing”

Para athlete shares his journey of recovery

The speaker at Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Pembina Valley’s Big Resilience event in Winkler last week demonstrated the importance of perseverance in the face of life’s challenges.

Six years ago, Winnipegger Reese Ketler collided with another player during a junior hockey game and hit the boards headfirst. The resulting spinal cord injury left him a quadriplegic.

Ketler has spent the years since learning how to navigate a new way of life, and he’s shared much of that journey on social media, garnering hundreds of thousands of followers.

Ketler explained that his injury involved a fracture of his C6 and C7 vertebrae, which means he’s paralyzed from about chest level down. The damage also affects the use of his hands.

Something his surgeon said to him as they were about to wheel him into surgery to stabilize the injury had a big impact on Ketler’s mindset throughout recovery.

“He said, ‘Reese, you probably won’t be able to walk again, but you will be successful if you want to be,’” he recalled. “That has always stuck with me.”

Ketler approached his recovery with the same tenacity he had previously poured into sports, training hard every day to regain function and learn adaptations to make a more normal life possible, exceeding the expectations of some of his doctors.

“Doctors said I’d never be able to be independent … you’ll need someone to take care of you every day, they’ll have to help you use the washroom, and if you want to travel you’ll need to bring a whole trailer for stuff like medical supplies. I was like, yeah, I’m not going to do that.”

And so he set out to prove them wrong. Today, Ketler lives on his own, is able to drive, supports himself as a content creator, and plays wheelchair rugby with Team Canada, a role that has taken him to competitions all over the world and connected him with a hugely supportive community of fellow wheelchair users.

“You can’t change the cards you’re dealt, you can only change the way you play the hand,” Ketler said of his motto through it all. “You can’t go back and change what happened, but I’m going to live my life on my terms now. I’m going to live the best life I possibly can.”

Sharing his challenges and accomplishments on social media started as a way to inspire others going through similar obstacles.

“When life does get hard, you can be resilient,” Ketler stressed. “You can come back from anything.”

A big part of that is simply sticking with it.

“Some days you wake up and you’re just not feeling it, but showing up for yourself is the biggest thing that you can control,” Ketler said. “If I didn’t show up every single day, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

“Rebuilding doesn’t mean starting over, it means creating something new,” he added. “I think mindset was the biggest thing that really shaped me in having a comeback story. Without positivity and being positive, I definitely couldn’t have gone through it.”

Ketler continues to push the limits, both in life and on the wheelchair rugby court, where he has set his sights high.

“My goal is to make the 2028 Paralympic team,” he said. “And if I don’t make 2028, then it will be 2032 in Brisbane.”

Big Bros. executive director Jenelle Neufeld noted how Ketler’s story  of perseverance in the face of adversity ties in with the work they’re doing with kids in our own community.

“Tonight is about resilience, connection, and the incredible strength that can come from having even one person believe in you,” she said. “At Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Pembina Valley, we see every day how powerful supportive relationships can be in the lives of young people.

“Many of the children and youth we work with are navigating challenges that no child should have to face alone: adversity, instability, trauma, isolation, struggles with confidence, mental health challenges, grief, bullying, family difficulties, or simply feeling like they don’t truly belong,” Neufeld shared. “Often these struggles have invited many young people to become experts at hiding what they are carrying.

“What mentoring does is create space for a child to finally feel safe enough to be seen,” she stressed. “Mentors show up consistently. They listen without judgment, they encourage, they build trust over time. And through that relationship, a young person begins to realize something incredibly important: I matter, I am worthy of care, and I am not alone.

“Through mentorship, guidance, and connection, we can help young people build confidence, resilience, and hope, creating lasting impact not only in their lives but for the future of our communities as a whole.”

You can learn more about Big Brothers Big Sisters’ work at pembinavalley.bigbrothersbigsisters.ca.