If you live, breathe, and dream about sports, like Ryan Becenko, then your life will be replete with visions of becoming the star player or sitting in the stands at a world-class game. At 35 years of age, Ryan has already accomplished many of his dreams. This summer, he struck one more from his long bucket list.
On July 5, Ryan’s family and friends watched from the stands as he waved the green flag over the modifieds class of race cars at the Red River Co-op Speedway (RRCS) near Ste. Adolphe.
“For his eighteenth birthday, we took him to his first NASCAR race in Michigan,” says his mom, Susan Becenko. “[He’s been to] major league baseball, national football in the States, CFL… he’s done it all. I’ve watched many events through my camera.” She laughs, reflecting on her role as a mother to Ryan. “Way back when, I think he was in high school still, his dream was to be a flagman. Whenever we go to a race, we have to sit behind the flag stand so he can watch the flagman.”
Susan is astounded over the many doors that have opened up for her son to realize his dreams over the years, and the kind-hearted folks who are behind them. Ryan has lived the majority of his life with a brain impairment called cortical apraxia, the result of a blood infection which caused his temperature to spike and his brain to seizure when he was only 18 months old. Since then, he’s struggled with impaired motor skills and speech, and he experiences epileptic seizures when he’s overstimulated.
Today, Ryan lives independently in a house in Niverville, aided by support workers through the EnVision Community Living program. He is well known in the community due to his work placements with the Town of Niverville and more recently with the Heritage Centre, Wm. Dyck and Sons, and Giz’s Garden Centre. In a sense, he’s become everyone’s son, brother, and friend because of his jubilant character and inviting smile.
The idea of flagman-for-a-day began at Giz’s Garden Centre. Aware of Ryan’s dream, owner Giz Bergen connected with Blair Bodley, manager of RRCS, who in turn reached out to Susan. Bodley made them an offer that would become a first at the track: to wave the flag during a feature race at RRCS’s Canada Day celebration.
“The best part about this job is that I get to give people a very unique experience,” says Bodley. “When I found out that Ryan liked waving the flag, it was just a natural instinct for me to offer that opportunity to him.”
Ryan, in fact, had been practicing for this day for years. He has his own set of race flags which he waves regularly from a perch on his deck, signalling imaginary drivers around an imaginary track.
“They gave us a section [in the stands] of the race track and there was about 20 staff and friends that came to watch him flag one race,” Susan says. “Quite a few people cried.”
“I was sitting beside him in the stands,” says Ryan’s support worker, Lindsay Kehler. “He was so loud, talking the whole time. He was very, very excited. Before the race he told everyone at work about it. Everyone was really excited.”
Susan recalls the mounting excitement as the race official made the announcement over the PA system along with a brief bio on Ryan’s sports accomplishments with the Special Olympics.
“His greatest dream is to become a flagman,” said the race announcer to the crowd. “Tonight, his dream comes true!”
Ryan was outfitted with headphones and a radio and climbed to the top of the flag stand to work alongside a man he now calls Flagman Steve. Instructions were communicated to Ryan through the radio and a tap on the shoulder indicated Ryan’s turn to wave the green flag.
Ryan’s participation took only minutes, but the event will last a lifetime in his memory.
“I got choked up,” says Bodley. “I couldn’t even talk. It was such an emotional experience.”
Now, in hindsight, when asked what’s the best part about being a flagman, Ryan simply states, “I like it!”
Ryan already anticipates the day when Flagman Steve might go on vacation and require his services to wave the flags on his behalf. While Bodley laughs about Ryan’s enthusiasm, he says he certainly anticipates Ryan’s future involvement at the tracks.
Susan suggests that it was likely the idea of being the boss that appealed most to Ryan. “He likes all officials. If you’re watching football, he’ll be telling you what the penalty is [before the ref does]. He knows all the rules, which is pretty impressive. And he knows the rules for every single sport. When he was in high school, he really liked basketball so we’d watch the NBA. He had a whistle and he’d run back and forth blowing his whistle.”
Ryan recalls two other highlights of the night’s event: a race car engine that caught fire, causing the driver to abandon the car mid-track, and the closing Canada Day fireworks.
“So many of his dreams have come true,” Susan says. “He’s been given great opportunities. He has wonderful people around him and it’s just so emotional that they care enough to do this. As a parent, it’s really overwhelming.”