A Sense Of Community
Sled hockey is an adaptive sport where participants are seated on a sled that features a skate blade on the bottom, and players use a pair of sticks with tips on the end to move around as well as both score and defend.
Some of the members of Team USA that were in Columbus were born with their physical challenges, while others like Rebecca Mann, who suffered her injuries while serving in the U.S. Army in Afghanistan, acquired theirs later in life.
Originally a New Yorker who now lives in Massachusetts, Mann has found a way to channel her competitive nature into a sport she knew nothing about at first.
"No one told me about adaptive sports, so it took me years to find hockey," said Mann, who has played for the past eight years. "Being a very competitive, athletic person growing up, it was like, ‘Oh, this can still work for me. I can still have an outlet that is in sports.’ So for me, I will always say that hockey gave my life back.”
For everyone on the ice, though, the sport of hockey has become part of their life in so many ways. It provides sense of community, of like-minded people who face similar challenges and can support one another through them. And it’s a competitive outlet, as make no mistake, this group wants to – and usually does – win, as Team USA captured gold at the inaugural Women’s Para World Championship in 2025.
“I'm a competitive person, so I hate losing,” said Jamie Benassi, a Cincinnati-area native who has played for a decade. “It drives me insane. We also push each other to our limits, which I think is super important, and that’s how you get better. But it definitely is a community for me. I found sled hockey early in my life, but not as early as (others). I wish I knew it like when I was super little because it was the greatest thing that ever happened to me.”
Goaltender Hope Magelky grew up in North Dakota as a hockey fan and works for the Bismarck Bobcats of the NAHL, and getting the opportunity to play sled hockey is something she never considered for much of her life.
“Having the ability to play hockey myself has been such an awesome outlet and experience,” said Magelky, who has been playing for eight years. “I didn’t find adaptive sports until later in life. So growing up, I never thought I'd be able to play hockey or really any sport or be competitive or an elite athlete in any which way. So it’s really given me that opportunity to play a sport and play it at a high level, and not just that, but it’s hockey.”
Sled hockey may not be easy, but in some ways, maybe that’s the appeal. And once the players mastered the movements, scored their first goal or made that first save, they found their passion. They also found a place that helped make them better people.
"Once I started playing hockey, my world doubled in size because I met so many of my best friends,” said Kaden Herchenroether, a Pittsburgh native who has played since 2018. “I know if I go to California or Florida or Ohio, there's people in my corner wherever I go. And I learned so much about not only my disability and my relationship with my disability, but also everyone else's and how they navigate the world. And I think it's made me so much more worldly and well rounded, so I really appreciate hockey for that as well.”
Leading The Way
When McKee first attended the U.S. development camp, women’s participation in sled hockey was just getting started.
Just how rare was it to see a fellow woman playing the game?
"Back then, there was maybe like five girls throughout the entire United States, so we didn't have those female role models to look up to,” McKee said. “Just seeing from our first-ever game against Canada, we had to borrow six of their players because we didn't have enough females in the U.S. Did we still beat them? Heck yeah, we did. Did they give us their worst players? Heck, yes, they did.
“But when we first started this team, we had a girl that literally started playing two weeks ago. So you had the skill level of an elite athlete to, you're just touching the ice. So now, it has taken years to get to.”
Herchenroether and Benassi were recently coaching at a camp in Indianapolis and realized the impact they’re having on the next generation of players.
"So many little girls would come up to us ask for pictures, ask for autographs and we'd be saying how insane it is that I'm still looking up to people, like I'm still looking up to Erica and Kelsey DeClaudio, the best female sled hockey player in the world who is on my club team,” Herchenroether said. "I still look up to them, so it's so strange that the role has almost shifted, that I'm the person they're looking up to.
“They want my autograph, which is still so insane to me. Their parents are coming up to us to thank us. I'm like, there's no skin off my back. I love doing this, and I like sharing the word. Even in my daily life, if I see a girl in a wheelchair, like I'm beelining towards them and I'm like, ‘Do you play any sports?’”
The 12 women’s players at this year’s camp is a high-water mark for participation at the event, and it’s an important camp in a lot of ways. The players taking part are sharpening their skills against some of the best young players in the world and being taught by members of the national Paralympic team, and that development is important because more players means more competition.
The expansion of the game means that members of the U.S. women’s national team are now fighting for spots on the roster, while the young up-and-comers are looking to earn their place. That level of competition makes everyone and the sport as a whole better.
"I think it's been really interesting to also watch the level of our play on the women's side,” Mann said. “I feel like we're pushing each other. Every year, the players are getting better, faster, and it's expanding globally as well.”
The Next Level
On the international stage, sled hockey is still a relatively new sport. Sled hockey first entered the Paralympic Games in 1994 and the World Para Ice Hockey Championships were first held in 1996, but it didn’t become an annual event until 2023.
For a variety of reasons, including participation and funding, the women’s side of the coin is still coming along, especially internationally. While the United States and a few other countries are making major strides to develop squads, the global side of the game is still catching up, which remains the biggest barrier to certifying the sport for the Paralympic Games.
To that end, with an eye on building teams that could play in the 2030 Games, members of the U.S. team have done their part to try to grow the sport, traveling near and far to teach others. For example, McKee and longtime national team member Catherine Faherty recently traveled to Finland for a women’s specific camp.
“We know that that is the void,” Mann said. “The void right now is the global growth, and it only helps us if we help grow this sport globally. This is our goal. If we want to get there, everybody needs to push it forward.”
To that end, the Women’s Para Hockey Foundation has been established to find funding to help grow the game, especially across the world. While the players are busy going about their daily lives and playing the sport they love, they also know there’s a responsibility to make sure it keeps getting bigger and better, and they have the power to help make it happen.
It helps that they’ve seen the growth up close. Faherty grew up in Massachusetts and started playing at age 5, and now nearly two decades later, she plays at the same club as fellow national team member Ailin Zheng and hopeful Laighton Philbrick, both of whom attended the camp in Columbus.
“I was the only girl in my program playing sled hockey,” she said of her start. “Now Ailin played for the same program, and Laighton has grown up in the same program that I played for. Having the growth of women's sports, just my program alone, having other girls to play with, and all around the country and all around the world for kind of what we're doing now, it's so cool to see.”
The women’s side of sled hockey has clearly come a long way, but there are more steps to take. The current group of players that pulls on the Team USA jersey is aware of the strides that have been made, and they know how important it is that they push to keep things going.
“We’re fighting for us, but we’re also fighting for all the girls that will come after us,” Faherty said. “That’s really important to keep in mind.”
