{"id":5393,"date":"2017-11-27T09:35:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-27T09:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/2017\/11\/27\/14-year-old-with-prosthetic-shines-as-goalie\/"},"modified":"2017-11-27T09:35:00","modified_gmt":"2017-11-27T09:35:00","slug":"14-year-old-with-prosthetic-shines-as-goalie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/14-year-old-with-prosthetic-shines-as-goalie\/","title":{"rendered":"14-year-old with Prosthetic Shines as Goalie"},"content":{"rendered":"

Story originally posted ici<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

An \u201cable bodied\u201d person is, technically, defined as someone who is strong and healthy with no physical disability.<\/p>\n

Spend a few minutes getting to know Gabe Ferron-Bouius, and you\u2019ll want to amend the definition.<\/p>\n

The 14-year-old Grade 9 student is certainly strong and healthy, but he has no right foot or ankle and a shortened fibula.<\/p>\n

Watch Gabe on the ice for 10 minutes, though, and you will discover he is more able bodied than many boys his age.<\/p>\n

Just ask his teammates on the Major Bantam AA Cumberland Grads, and they\u2019ll tell you they wouldn\u2019t want anyone other than Gabe and teammate Nick Chabot patrolling the crease and stopping pucks for them.<\/p>\n

A current 17-game winning streak doesn\u2019t hurt the argument either.<\/p>\n

How about being named MVP of the forward pack for the league champion Barrhaven Scottish? Or what about playing up an age group with the Ottawa Golden Knights last season because he was able to compete at the higher level?<\/p>\n

Able. There\u2019s that word again.<\/p>\n

As a baby, Gabe was diagnosed with fibular hemimelia, the shortening or absence of a fibula at birth. It is a rare condition that didn\u2019t allow his foot and ankle to form properly.<\/p>\n

At nine months old, Gabe had his foot removed, his heel pad attached to his tibia and was fitted for a prosthetic leg. It didn\u2019t slow him down. He was water skiing by the age of two.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou find out what (fibular hemimelia) is when you\u2019re in the situation but otherwise you\u2019d never hear about it,\u201d Gabe\u2019s mother, Aimee Ferron, explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was super active from the get go. After he had his surgery, he was trying to pull up to stand and he\u2019s never looked back. His goalie coach always says someone is going to write a book about him. He\u2019s broken a lot of barriers for kids with disabilities.<\/p>\n

It seems the only thing that slows Gabe down is biking. When riding home from school a few weeks ago, he clipped tires with a friend, who was riding in front of him. Gabe went down, lost two teeth and a couple of weeks on the ice. The second half of the Grads goaltending tandem, Chabot, was there for the Grads like he has been all season, but Gabe was still with his team during that time and although he couldn\u2019t play he was there with support in another form.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe could hardly talk and he was there giving a speech and the guys rallied around him, and that\u2019s the true sign of a leader,\u201d Grads coach Terry Lemieux said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA leader within a team doesn\u2019t necessarily mean a C or an A; it\u2019s the other guys, the unsung guys in the background, and Gabe is one of those. People like Gabe step up. It\u2019s amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Gabe, wearing a prosthetic is something he\u2019s always known, so other than some adjustments he\u2019s just doing what his friends are doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been different and you have to adapt to certain things, but for the most part I\u2019ve had lots of support so it\u2019s been fine,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just love playing the game and play whenever I can. When I\u2019m playing, there are certain moves that are more challenging, so I have to adapt those moves to fit my mobility. I just push myself to go to the highest level possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gabe is able to play at the highest level possible because of the support of The War Amps, who pay for his recreational prosthetic device. It differs from his day-to-day prosthetic in that it\u2019s more specialized for the crease and costs about $15,000 per year.<\/p>\n

Gabe has been approached on several occasions by sledge hockey organizations but he feels he is too capable at regular hockey. There is however, the standing amputee hockey program and the national team that Gabe is a part of.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe standing amputee is great, because he actually gets to be around and play hockey with people who live the life that he does,\u201d Aimee explained.<\/p>\n

A full and active life, to be sure.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Story originally posted here. An \u201cable bodied\u201d person is, technically, defined as someone who is strong and healthy with no physical disability. Spend a few minutes getting to know Gabe Ferron-Bouius, and you\u2019ll want to amend the definition. The 14-year-old Grade 9 student is certainly strong and healthy, but he has no right foot or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"segment":[],"class_list":["post-5393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5393\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5393"},{"taxonomy":"segment","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iplayhockey.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/segment?post=5393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}