From New Jersey Newsroom:RENSSELAER, N.Y. – Here's a twist. Imagine a child teaching an adult? Well, it's being done right here in the Albany area where the kids' Sled Warriors ice hockey team is holding a teaching clinic for adults.
The twist, you see, is this: the adults are disabled war veterans. Their teachers are youngsters who are athletic, strong-willed, courageous and determined – and physically challenged. It's all part of the Stride Adaptive Sports program, a fairly new therapeutic recreation-related service for individuals with disabilities that spans many Northeastern states, including New Jersey.
Stride Sled Warriors come from the Capital District here in New York to do one thing – play hockey. "I just like to be out on the ice and moving fast," said one eager participant. "Hockey is the only sport where it's okay to roughhouse."
The program with local hospitalized veterans developed quite by accident. Young Sled Warriors had played a demonstration game here at the Times Union Center for professional River Rats Hockey. That game caught the attention of Veterans Administration Hospital recreation therapists in nearby Albany, home to many veteran patients who have been wounded in wars ranging from World War II to Iraq.
They looked at the unusual hockey game as a way to help disabled veterans find some form of excitement through sports – so they quickly contacted Stride Adaptive Sports with a request for a teaching clinic so they — and the vets — could learn more.
That clinic – with kids doing the teaching – will be held Sunday, Feb. 28, at the Albany Academy Ice Rink.
Full contact sled hockey is the same hockey you'll see on a professional rink - except that participants are seated. There are goals and hat tricks ... players are penalized and put in the penalty box ... and players push and shove and do what they can do to advance the puck. Just like in the professional version of the sport. Sled hockey has become the rage here in the Northeast, in Canada and throughout Europe, where it had its beginnings and where it became a Paralympic sport.
The concept is catching on in New York, too; teams are emerging around the state for youths, juniors and adults.
"Come on, come on, we're waiting for you," said an eager young player the other day as his buddy was being strapped into his sled and lifted onto the ice. These youngsters will now teach U.S. military service veterans how to play hockey during the upcoming clinic. The veterans will come to learn how to move on the ice and how to compete.
"There are not too many sports I can play," says Luke Wilson, son of team coach Tom Wilson. "But I can teach and show others how it's done, and then maybe we'll have another team to play against." Hockey sticks are taped to Luke's hands because he has trouble holding on to them. The shortened sticks, with metal picks on one end, help to propel the sled players across the ice.
"Sled hockey is more than just a sport for participants," said Mary Ellen Whitney, who founded the program in 1986 when she was an adaptive physical education teacher. "For all the help and attention these young adults receive from their caretakers, they compete alone. Out on the ice no one is there to assist. It is just the player, the sled, the sticks, the puck and the competition."
Project Stride initially served 11 children with varying handicapping conditions. It was successful and was requested as a model in many other Capital District agencies. In 1989, Stride became incorporated as a not-for-profit organization. The following year it added Camp Stride and the Challenge Division of Little League baseball. Stride officials added a bowling program in 1992, a sailing program on Lake George in 1996 and eventually skiing and snowboarding programs. Stride programs are cost-free to participants.
Stride Adaptive Sports provides more than 5,000 adaptive sport and recreation lessons annually to children and individuals with special needs. Stride has more than 250 skilled volunteer sport instructors who serve more than 1,000 families with free programs in 17 different sports and locations. The organization holds membership in the Professional Ski Instructors of America and the American Association of Snowboard Instructors.
