Greetings, everyone. My name is Rick Mannen and I'm an inductee
into the Brantford Area and Sports
Hall of Recognition. I'm honored today to be chatting
with Garrett Riley for the sport of para
ice hockey. Welcome. Thank you very much. Thank you. Glad you can make it with us
today. We're just going to chat about,
get an insight into who you are, some of your journey and what it was like
being inducted into the Brantford and Area
Sports Hall of Recognition. Yeah, for sure. I grew up in
Brantford playing stand up hockey and all kinds
of other sports, and, just always was an active
kid and always had great support
coming from Brantford just with all the teams
I was on. And it was just being recognized from the city that I'm from
is absolutely incredible. And it's a massive
honor from for myself. And I appreciate all the support
that comes from the community. Yeah, it's pretty terrific. Definitely. For sure. Well, let's dive right into
some of these questions. I'm interested to know what drew you into the sport of para
ice hockey. So I think it's just
the natural knack for hockey. It's something I had just had
to kind of change my mindset a little bit from, not being able play
stand up anymore and just, I found sledge hockey
and was right back at home. So it was, it was amazing to be able
to find something like that. And there's always something out
there. It doesn't matter what obstacle
you're going through. Yeah. Great message. Do you have any mentors
that helped you along the way or impacted your life,
your sport or your career? Definitely. Definitely. A lot of my coaches, one in particular
is actually an ex NHL player. His name is Mike Fujino, and he's actually
a really big mentor of mine. And my girlfriend
Alyson, she's been there for me
through everything. Excuse me. it didn't matter what it was. She was always
right there by my side, and that really helped me
to get here today, so. Yeah. That's terrific. Yeah, It's important
to have that support, isn't it? For sure. Absolutely. Yeah. What are some of the highlights
of your career there? Some of the highlights. I mean, of course,
going to represent Canada. I've done it. I did it in the Czech Republic
for a world championship, and I've actually done it for a couple of other tournaments
as well. It's the Canadian Tire
Para Hockey Cup. It's run
pretty much all over Canada. It's my first one. I was actually able to have it here
in London, Ontario, so it was very nice
to have my family nice and close and then obviously going to go
into the Paralympics and bringing back
the silver medal and also getting a couple of points
and scoring a goal there was was pretty cool. It was amazing.
Yeah, it would be for sure. Putting that medal
around your neck. Definitely. Yes. What
an experience. Absolutely. Well, how has para ice hockey impacted your life? It's been amazing for me
because it it helped me find something. A new drive for something,
a new passion. Like I said,
I just had to kind of change my mindset a little bit. And. But, I just
it helped me to kind of change on a more positive way. And the people
that I've met along the way
have been absolutely incredible. So super. Now this is pretty fresh
because last night was the induction ceremony. And it was a great night
like it always is. What does it mean
to you to be inducted into the Brantford and Area
Sports Hall of Recognition? Like you said, it's,
it's still very fresh, but, just seeing all the previous
inductees such as yourself and just seeing all the support
that that was able to come out last night and, and just like I said, being from Brantford, it's
a huge honor to be able to have my name
written in the books forever. So it's, it's very,
very fresh still but I'm very honored. Yeah. You're a piece of history
for sure. Absolutely. It's
very weird to think, but. Yes. Yeah. Well,
what advice would you share if you were talking to a young
aspiring athlete? Yeah. it doesn't matter if they were able bodied, disabled,
didn't matter what it was. I think that, there's
always a sport out there. There's always coaching,
there's always being a mentor. Just being around people. And I think the people in sport are really positive people
and they have a lot of passion and it's good
people to be around. So I think it's just kind of surrounding yourself
with those people and just keep going. That's a great message. Great. Thank you. Well, I appreciate
chatting with you today. You're sort of sharing
some insight into who you are and some of your journey
and what it was like being inducted
in last nights Sports Hall. For sure. I would like to invite everyone down to the Wayne
Gretzky Center. If you haven't been there,
you're missing it. I tell you,
you've got to get down there and see the Brantford and Area
Sports Hall of Recognition. You can read
about Garrett's journey and see his artifacts
and that of many other inductees that we've had come out of this,
Brantford area. Thanks, Garrett. Thank you very much.
Have a good day. You too.