Bennett Nowak, loves rugby.
“It’s my favourite sport,” says the 13-year-old Oak Bay News carrier.
He learned that love a couple years ago through family friends and former neighbours Clay Panga and and Barbara Mervin, national level players.
He enjoys the running and tackling of the sport, but it’s far from his only athletic endeavour.
Bennett also plays basketball, tennis and “he loves to rid his bicycle and his scooter,” says mom Joelle Dennis. He’s well-known about his neighbourhood.
“Wherever we go, Bennett will meet someone he knows,” says Dennis.
Despite a handful of challenges, Bennett, who just finished Grade 6 at Monterey Middle School, always makes friends.
“He’s on the autism spectrum and he has very mild cerebral palsy and he has pretty severe ADD,” Dennis said. He heads for Easter Seal camps in the summer and attends Operation Trackshoes every spring.
Bennett brings home plenty of ribbons from the recreational side of the huge annual event at the University of Victoria.
This year marked a pinnacle of excitement.
“I’m very excited,” he said with a grin, spinning a large cup trophy on his Oak Bay kitchen table. “That’s my first time getting a trophy.”
Bennett digs the wheelbarrow races and likes to help others with their wheelchairs. He likes hanging out with friends for the weekend and having fun roommates.
Last year he was a bit over excited but this year, Dennis says.
“This year he had the same coach with him and when I went to see him the Saturday, his coach was ‘i can’t believe what a different boy this is,” she said. He was ““helpful and mature and for all of those reasons he was nominated and won the junior male sportsmanship award.”
Bennett earned the Don Oliver Memorial Trophy during the 47th Operation Trackshoes was June 9 to 11 at UVic.
“Bennett, he’s really into sports but it’s also a really important for him to learn about placing and a bit about competition,” Dennis said. And there he gets to see other kids – athletes aged six to 96 actually – who deal with challenges. “It’s run by all volunteers and it’s a track meet for people with developmental delays from all over the province.”