One Calgary Dino’s whirlwind journey to U Sports Final 8 is as much about the friends made along the way

As whirlwind adventures go, the last 18 months of Hayden and Charity Franson’s latest run has been non-stop. Their journey to Hayden playing for a U Sports national championship this week has had it all. Including a new friend that has made their journey so fulfilling. 

Just last March, Hayden was wrapping up his final season of playing basketball at Cornell University in the prestigious U.S. Ivy League. The previous fall he had rolled into the upstate New York school solo. Charity — his then-girlfriend, now wife — was finishing up school in Utah, where he is from, and she from Idaho. And after graduating mid-year, Charity then decided to come join Hayden for his last semester at Cornell and together, decide what to do next. 

Charity is an athlete, having played volleyball at a high level. When the run at Cornell ended, she was in full support of Hayden — who expects to eventually play professionally overseas — to find a grad school and the right basketball program to finish up his eligibility. 

There was an offer from Cal Poly, a Division I NCAA school, but it didn’t seem like the right fit. A call from a college in Texas, another in the state of North Carolina. Some on the East Coast expressed interest. 

“Then fate took us here,” Hayden said, sitting next to Charity, in a duplex in Calgary where they’ve lived since last fall. 

A family friend connected the Fransons to Dan Vanhooren, the head coach of the University of Calgary Dinos. Vanhooren watched film of a 6-foot-7 post with a skill set he knew would translate well at the U Sports level, and knew that Franson’s kind of size would help. With an automatic host berth into the Final 8 draw, landing a big player with experience would be valuable. 

Neither Hayden nor Charity had been to Canada before. On a whim, they went for a visit last April, just weeks after Hayden was done at Cornell, and from the jump, it felt right. 

“Dan treated us really well from the from the get-go,” Hayden said.

The veteran Dinos coach showed them the campus, the city and outlined his vision for how Franson would fit into the Dinos frontcourt. And Hayden and Charity made the most of their maiden voyage to the Rockies.

“We love being outdoors, camping and all this stuff. So on that (recruiting visit), we actually did a little road trip when we came up here,” Charity said. “We stopped to check out the glaciers, and then went up to Jasper, and then kind of worked our way back through some national parks and had some good camping.”

They wrapped the trip in Banff, and then Vanhooren met them for breakfast with the offer: A scholarship, of course, and housing would be taken care of — with a catch. 

“That’s when Dan told us about Bill,” Charity said. 

Bill Hurley has been a fixture around the Dinos for a quarter-century as the team’s volunteer equipment manager. And at every home game, he leads the crowd in singing The Village People’s ‘YMCA.’ Hurley is a grown man, who in 2018 suited up for Team Alberta in basketball at the 2018 Special Olympics. Each year, someone connected to the hoops program at the university lives in that same duplex as Hurley. 

Vanhooren felt the Fransons would be a great fit to stay with Hurley, and pitched the idea to them. The couple had dinner with Hurley’s parents in July, just before they got married back in Utah. Charity had studied pre-occupational therapy and had previously worked with those having learning differences. She has some cousins with special needs.

“And they’re just the most wonderful humans to be around all the time, they just keep life happy and fun,” Charity said. 

Everyone left the restaurant that night feeling good about making it happen. By September, Hayden was enrolled at the university, and the Fransons were roommates with Mr. Dino. 

“Living with Bill is an adventure,” Hayden said with a grin. 

Like a high-performance athlete, Hurley is quite routine-oriented himself. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning, one of Hayden or Charity will be sure Bill is awake to catch the 7:10 a.m. City Cab to take him to Wal-Mart, where his favourite gig there is working as a greeter at the store. Hurley is on his own for lunch, and with the Fransons gone most of the day, Hurley then heads to campus for what he calls his quiet time. It’s there that he quietly sips on a soft drink, recharging his social battery. 

After practice, it’s dinner back at the house, often Charity fixing up something for the three of them. And then in the evening, Hurley grabs a little can of Coke and two cookies and heads downstairs to watch a movie.

But don’t get it twisted. Hurley has a mischievous side to him, too. 

“He’s a little prankster, for sure,” Hayden said. “He’s obsessed with Nerf guns. Has a whole closet full of them. So sometimes we’ll come home and he’s hiding somewhere ready to have a Nerf gun war. We have lots of those.”

Chimes in Charity: “We play a lot of UNO. That’s his favorite. Doesn’t matter how many times he loses. He’s the King of UNO, and he’s gonna beat you the next round.” Both husband and wife are recipients of a noogie almost daily. Life under the same roof with Hurley, and all.

An open mind can open doors. A year ago, they weren’t yet the Fransons and living in Ithaca, not knowing what would be next. Hayden has made his mark with the Dinos: starts every game, averages 12 points and seven rebounds a night. Made the adjustment from NCAA rules to how FIBA is played and officiated. But more than that for the Fransons, their time in Calgary has been so much more than just basketball, in part thanks to their new friend, Bill Hurley. 

“Coming here, newly married, living on our own with somebody who we’re responsible for is good preparation for life,” Hayden said. “That’s been the biggest thing — just being able to work things out between us, because we’re not perfect. Bill’s not perfect. So, when we make mistakes dealing with situations, we can talk about it and be better at communicating with each other.” 

Hurley’s outlook has rubbed off on Charity. One of his favourite sayings is, ‘I love my life.’ 

“It was hard at first, coming here, being in a new spot, away from our friends and what we usually do. But Bill has helped,” she said. “Bill helps us a lot to just embrace life and be happy and like, it’s hard to not smile when he’s around.”

Idaho, Utah, New York, now Calgary. The basketball side of this season’s adventure culminates these next few days with the Final 8 and the Dinos playing for a national championship. 

“You never know how it will all work out,” Hayden said. “But it’s all been quite an adventure.”