'A pretty cool idea': Documentary series to follow Straschnitzki's basketball dreams
CBC
Former Humboldt Bronco hockey player Ryan Straschnitzki has an entourage these days — complete with cameras and microphones — now that he's changed his path to the Paralympics from the ice to the hardwood.
"Prairie Cat Productions reached out and mentioned this idea of kind of filming me in my wheelchair basketball career and possibly presenting it to a TV network," Straschnitzki said in an interview.
"I thought it was a pretty cool idea and I like doing cool things."
The 25-year-old from Airdrie, Alta., was paralyzed from the chest down in 2018 when a semi-trailer ran a stop sign and barrelled into the path of the Humboldt Broncos' bus in rural Saskatchewan.
Sixteen people died and 13 were seriously injured.
WATCH | Ryan Straschnitzki discusses Paralympic dreams:
Straschnitzki played on Alberta's para hockey team and had been training with the Paralympic development team, but his journey ended at the Team Canada Olympic tryouts.
In July 2023, he decided to try to make the 2028 Paralympic basketball squad.
The decision caught the attention of Lucas Frison, the founder of Regina-based Prairie Cat Productions, who had completed a documentary for CBC on the Bronco team in the season after the crash.
Straschnitzki was recently filmed at Calgary's Winsport arena, where he geared up and played some sledge hockey with friends and former teammates, all the while being followed by cameras.
WATCH | Ryan Straschnitzki plans for a future in hockey:
Each episode of the six-part series titled "We Were Broncos" runs 30 minutes and will air on AMI. It will follow him as he pursues wheelchair basketball, with sledge hockey being part of his early story.
Other episodes will focus on Straschnitzki's progress over the next several months, an explanation of wheelchair basketball, attending tournaments, and the crash itself.
Frison, the producer and director, said the series has a personal tie.
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