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