The 17-year-old, who came to Canada from Ukraine with his family in 2022 to escape the war in his country, struggled with the language at first, but soon caught on.

School was never Mykulych’s forte — he was a three-time national champion kickboxer in his home country — but speaking a once-foreign tongue was soon second nature. Doors opened. He joined sports teams, made lasting connections and found community.

On Friday, a day that coincided with the third anniversary of his arrival in Canada, he celebrated all of those accomplishments and more in front of family and friends at the school’s final ceremony.

“It felt good,” he told THE EQUITY in an interview before leaving for Ottawa, where he will be living with his parents and two younger siblings while completing his Grade 12.

The family came to Canada after the Ukraine war began in 2022, finding a sponsor in Bristol who provided them with a job and a place to live.

Mykulych, then 14 years old, was by all accounts a promising young athlete with dreams of achieving more.

But all of that progress stopped when he came to Canada. For the first time, he couldn’t do the thing he loved. Thrown into the deep end, the teen was forced to learn a new language, integrate himself into a new culture and school, as well as cope with the fact that most everyone he knew was still living in a country at war.

His first year was tough, resorting to Google Translate to communicate with his friends and teachers.

“My second week of school, people came up to me and they’re like, ‘How’s it going?’ And I go, ‘Well, I’m going to math class,’ and they started laughing,” he said with a smile.

Part way through his Grade 9 year Mykulych learned that his longtime kickboxing teammate, whom he had competed against since the age of six, had died after the Russian military bombed his hometown.

“It didn’t get as close in my head as when I heard somebody who I’ve seen twice a week [for the past 10 years] was just gone,” he said.

It was tough news to hear. Perhaps the toughest. But Mykulych picked himself up and kept on going. He kept studying, kept trying his best to understand and be understood.

The next school year, Mykulych had made enough progress that he felt ready to do something that had been sorely missing from his life over the past year – sports.

Although he had been a champion kickboxer, right as he started a life in Canada his two coaches, who he idolized, were on the frontlines of the war with Russia. Without having them, Mykulych felt it nearly impossible to bring himself back into the ring.

“It was my thing in Ukraine that I was really passionate about. And then all of a sudden I couldn’t do it anymore [ . . . ] I just didn’t want to do it knowing that they are at war right now.”

He joined teams in basketball and rugby. Although he could not bring himself to compete in his native sport, these new challenges scratched his itch for competition.

“I spent my whole life being in sports. From five years old I was always at practices [or] getting ready for competitions,” he said. “So it felt really good to be back in sports, even if it was a different sport. It felt really good.”

Senior boys basketball coach Jodi Thompson, who also tutored the teen in math, said his drive to succeed both on and off the court made him stand apart from his peers.

“He worked tirelessly [ . . . ] and outside of practice he worked with his teammates during lunch hour and would practice after school with other coaches. He would constantly be asking, ‘What can I do better? How can I be a factor?’ He was always wanting more.”

Off the court, Thompson said the teen is positive, smart, but also gritty and determined — a point that the pair bonded over.

“That’s how we related the most. We’re both pretty stubborn, determined people,” she said with a laugh.

Thompson said Mykulych often came to her and her husband Adam, who co-coached the team, for advice not only about sports, but about what was going on at school and in life.

“He always looked to us to be honest and open with him about how to navigate through things, and then he would take that to heart,” she said. “We’re really fortunate to have been able to be a part of his life.”

Thanks in part to basketball and the Thompsons, Mykulych had a community around him. He had friends. A crucial role on the team. Things were starting to feel normal.

But earlier this year, he found out he would have to start anew in Ottawa, where his parents would be moving in the spring.

The news was hard to handle, but he toughed it out for three months away from his family as he finished his diploma at PHS.

But before making the move, Mykulych officially concluded his PHS career at Friday night’s farewell ceremony put on by the school, where teacher Jordan Kent called out his long list of accomplishments in front of the crowd.

“Since arriving in Canada three years ago [ . . . ] You’ve accomplished so much. You should be proud, and you are someone to admire,” he said.

Mykulych said it was a tough moment saying goodbye to many people who had helped him along the way, knowing that some of them he won’t see again.

“A lot of people picked up on me, Grade 11s, my girlfriend, my coaches, everyone was helping me so much, and people helped me to pass my [classes], and there were a lot of teachers who were helping me,” he said. “It will be hard.”

As hard as it is to leave the community he built, Mykulych has reasons to look forward to life there. Continuing in the footsteps of his two mentors, he will be a volunteer coach at a kickboxing gym in Barrhaven, teaching a small group of young kids.

“I called my coach right away [ . . ] and I’m like, ‘I’m a coach now,’” he said of the moment he heard the news. “He said, ‘I’m really proud of you,’ and I was just speechless.”

Mykulych’s long-term goal is to be a firefighter, a career his dad held in Ukraine and again as a volunteer with the Bristol department.

“Part of it may be because my coaches were doing something similar, trying to save lives and all this stuff, and just be helpful the same way people were helpful to me at a point in my life when I needed it.”

Before leaving for his new journey in Ottawa, Mykulych reflected on just how much he has changed since arriving three years ago as a 14-year-old kid.

“I was a really different kid then than now. Moving away, losing friends, trying to find new people, losing people back in Ukraine who went to war but didn’t come back. It’s changed a lot in me,” he said, adding that it has made him stronger and more resilient.

“In some ways I see a situation and I’m like, ‘There’s no way out of this. But at some point I’m like, ‘Okay, just take a breath and try to work it through.’”

As Mykulych moves on to the next phase of his life, he spoke positively of the relationships he was able to build in the Pontiac that will prepare him for the future.

“I’m just glad I ended up in this place. The help and support and people picking me up, it felt good,” he said, adding that he will be back to see his new friends in the Pontiac whenever he can.

As the one-time champion packs up the car and bids his Pontiac home goodbye for a new adeventure, he said he will turn to his experiences at PHS to help him succeed at whatever else he decides to do in life.

“It’s a scary part coming up in my life. I don’t know what I’m going to face in Ottawa right now, I don’t know what school I’m going to, but from my past experience I know it’ll be fine. I’ll just have to work hard again.”

Mykulych joined the senior boys’ basketball team during his time at PHS. Photo: K.C. Jordan

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