NEWS FILE PHOTO Kieran Block (23) of the Medicine Hat Tigers battles for a loose puck against a Moose Jaw player during a Feb. 27, 2005 game at The Arena. Block, now 34, will speak about inclusivity at the Medicine Hat Sport and Event Council stakeholder meeting Nov. 6 at Medicine Hat College.
Kieran Block has told his story so many times, it almost becomes matter-of-fact.
A year after finishing his Western Hockey League career with the Medicine Hat Tigers, he was hanging out with some friends, jumping off a cliff into a lake near Jasper.
One jump. Two jumps. Three jumps. Adrenaline flowing, not a care in the world.
On the fourth, his life changed forever.
“I still remember pretty much the whole encounter, the whole experience,” said Block, now 34, 12 years removed from that fateful day when he landed in a shallow spot, shattering his legs. “In a very real sense I’ve desensitized myself to the story, in both a good and bad way.
“As much as I’ll share my story I’m a lot of times telling the story… shifting little details to really get my point across and hopefully inspire people about what I experienced and how I overcame it.”
It was a miracle he didn’t die or even lose his legs. Instead, he learned to play hockey in a new way, on a sledge and using sticks with pics on the ends, getting so good he helped Canada win a gold medal at the world championships in 2013.
But as Block prepares to return to Medicine Hat – speaking Nov. 6 at Medicine Hat College as part of the Medicine Hat Sport and Event Council’s semi-annual stakeholder meeting – he has other stories that need sharing, too.
Like when he heard fans at the Medicine Hat Arena deride a fellow mixed-race player from an opposing team with racial slurs.
“We were playing the Kootenay Ice, they had Nigel Dawes, a pretty prolific scorer,” said Block, whose father is Caucasian and mother is African American. “Somebody was dropping N-bombs, yelling at him on the ice. They got kicked out and banned and whatever, but it’s like ‘hello?! I’m on the team, me and him are basically the same.”
Disability may have framed a good portion of Block’s speeches over the years, but he’s coming to the Gas City during the World Under-17 Hockey Championship to talk about inclusivity, something that reaches far beyond his time with the national team, or the Tigers, or even his current job teaching kids with mental health issues at Rogers Place in Edmonton.
“He has that connection to Medicine Hat being a former Tiger,” said Kara Brake, chair of the sport and event council. “It’s crazy how a tragic event has done so many amazing things for him… he’s made something good from something horrible.”
Anyone is welcome to attend the 7 p.m. meeting and presentation at the Eresman Theatre, which is free. The event council is heavily involved in promoting the under-17 championships and other upcoming events such as the recently-announced Special Olympics nationals in 2022, but its main focus is to assist local groups in bringing events big and small to the city.
Connecting sport and event groups with each other helps foster the inclusivity Block will speak to.
“The more people we can reach out to, especially within our local organizations, the better,” said Brake. “One of the things we were hearing from our stakeholders is (they want) information on inclusivity, that being mental health, para sports, the LGBT community, and what we can do as local organizations to make sure that we are being inclusive.”
Block, who spent four seasons in orange and black including the memorable WHL title run in 2004, advocates for inclusivity in a number of ways. He works with grade school kids experiencing mental health issues, has his own past as someone with a disability, and also works with the You Can Play Project which aims to get rid of homophobia in sports.
He remembers a female friend coming out to him and while he can’t relate to that stress, he knows he has the platform to advocate for a safer environment for members of the LGBTQ+ community.
“It’s trying to teach that respect within, because at the end of the day… if one in four guys are gay, that means on a hockey team you’re going to have three or four guys that are gay,” said Block. “Guys aren’t coming out, that means they’re hiding in the closet because they don’t feel safe and that’s just not a world, if I can break down those barriers (I’d like to).”
Incredibly, Block is now back playing stand-up hockey. After five surgeries and a lot of rehabilitation, he somehow recovered enough to play senior AAA for the Stony Plain Eagles in 2017. Among his teammates were ex-Tigers Tyler Bunz and Spencer McAvoy, and former Edmonton Oiler captain Ryan Smyth.
He’s since stopped playing competitively, now in a recreational league. He knows he’s lucky, which is why he relishes the chance to speak about what he’s been through and give a voice to others who need it.
“My experience (with the Tigers) was wonderful, I was treated like gold from the fans, from the owners, the staff and management,” said Block. “But I know some of that stuff was happening in the background.
“It’s really just trying to create that awareness, that’s all I’m trying to do. That’s why I share the messages I share.”
