ST. PAUL - St. Paul para-athlete Jeremy Hall has been recognized by the Alberta Schools' Athletic Association (ASAA) as one of the greats.
In June, Hall was inducted into the ASAA Hall of Fame, something he had never seen coming.
“It’s more unexpected to be inducted into the ASAA Hall of Fame, just simply because I am a para-athlete,” Hall told Lakeland This Week.
Despite there being few opportunities for him to compete in para-sports throughout his childhood and adolescence, Hall pushed himself to find ways of one day achieving his goal of becoming a professional athlete.
“I did my best in playing able-bodied sports. I was able to arguably hold my own through some of that, I was competitive and that was really what drove me,” detailed Hall, adding he did join the golf team for one year. “That was a sport where my disability was less of an impairment and less of a limitation."
He continued, “I loved to play sports; I was always wanting to participate... I think I could hold my own recreationally... but being a para-athlete and having an impairment, disability, I never really had the chance to compete."
Hall may have played on a handful of teams throughout his younger years, but the athlete admits " I never would have expected to be, at that time, in the place I am."
In fact, he said there were friends and peers growing up that were “far more likely to make a career out of sport, and to be an elite athlete."
“This nomination really puts into perspective, I guess, how far I have come in that respect and what I have accomplished,” expressed Hall, adding his name is now among athletes he knew going through school, such as Jordan Baker.
“I am on that level, and this whole journey has been like that, chasing the dream and trying and wanting to be competitive and to be an athlete," he stated.
Not long after his induction into the Hall of Fame, Hall received the news that his rowing team had qualified for the 2021 Paralympics.
Hall grew up with severe hemophilia.
"There is a stigma that exists between sports and hemophilia being that it is a bleeding disorder,” Hall exclaimed, adding people are quick to "pump the breaks, to question things, or push you toward other things.”
There are those, however, that believed in Hall, and he is grateful to the coaches and staff who allowed him to forge his own path and pursue his passion for sports.
Hall said, “I have to thank them a ton for just letting me be me and trusting that I know my limitations and giving me the freedom and opportunity to run with it."
