Ben Gilbert

The Relentless One: Ben Gilbert Keeps Moving Forward

He lifts, runs, competes, gives back — and still believes being a good person matters more than any stat line.

Every team has that one guy who treats improvement like a moral obligation. For the St. Mary’s Lightning, that’s Ben Gilbert — part basketball player, part self-help experiment in motion. He’s the kind of guy who believes in the sacred science of getting one percent better every day, even when no one’s keeping score.

Gilbert didn’t start hooping because someone told him he was special. He started because he just loved it — pure, uncomplicated, borderline-irrational love. The kind that makes you chase a dream even when your jump shot’s betraying you and the gym lights flicker like an indie movie.

Last year, he picked up Mount Royal’s Community Service Award, and instead of treating it like a humble-brag, he took it as a reminder that doing good once doesn’t mean you’re done. He spends his time helping kids with autism and other mental disabilities build physical-literacy skills, coaches in the Special Olympics, and is even learning sign language because apparently “free time” isn’t part of his vocabulary.

Outside of basketball, Ben’s idea of relaxing involves triathlons, weightlifting, and Hyrox competitions, which is kind of like saying your day off from work is running another company. And yet it fits. The guy’s addicted to the grind, not the glory.

Ask about goals and he’ll talk about winning a championship, becoming a firefighter, and just being better than yesterday. But the line that sticks — the one that feels like the thesis statement to the Ben Gilbert Project — goes like this:

“You are not your sport. Your self-worth isn’t determined by your sport. It’s determined by how you act as a person.”

That’s the kind of quote you write on a locker-room whiteboard, but it only really works if you mean it. And Gilbert? He absolutely does.