USA Hockey's Disabled Hockey Festival keeps growing stronger

WESLEY CHAPEL, Fla. -- Hugo Medina didn't like losing a semifinal tournament game over the weekend, but the goalie enjoyed the camaraderie of playing against teams of fellow wounded veterans.

"You don't think about your injuries, you don't think about what happened, you have the one hour of basically physical and mental therapy out there on the ice," said Medina, a retired U.S. Army sergeant who plays for the Alaska Warriors. "We all have similar physical disabilities or mental disabilities and we're basically our own support group, other than the Veteran's Administration."
Medina found support aplenty at the USA Hockey 2019 Disabled Hockey Festival, a massive tournament played on four ice sheets at the AdventHealth Center Ice in Wesley Chapel, Florida, near Tampa.

With more than 1,000 players and nearly 100 teams, the festival is the world's largest indoor disabled ice sporting event with divisions for players who are wounded military veterans, blind or visually impaired, deaf or hard of hearing, and for special needs such as Down syndrome and autism.
The annual festival has become so large that USA Hockey split it into two four-day weekends this year to have enough ice time for the 63 sled hockey teams and 479 players who begin competition on Thursday.
"Hockey is for everybody," said USA Hockey President Jim Smith, who served as a volunteer coach, referee, and rink public address announcer during last weekend. "It doesn't matter your disability or anything. We'll find a place for you to play."

And more people want to play. The number of players and coaches involved in disabled hockey has surged from 2,613 in 2012-13 to 4,452 in 2017-18, according to USA Hockey statistics.
Sled hockey's player ranks swelled from 785 participating in 42 programs in 2012-13 to 1,683 in 75 programs in 2017-18. Special hockey grew from 1,142 players in 23 programs to 1,209 players enrolled in 28 programs in the same time frame.
"This is about improving the quality of life of people of all walks of life with disabilities," said J.J. O'Connor, who chairs the disabled hockey section.
O'Connor, a quadriplegic since he broke his neck in a hockey accident when he was 16, said the annual festival is "about bringing people together to have fun."

Hockey has become such a big part of Otis Miles III's life since he joined the Chicago Blackhawks Special Hockey team three years ago that he stopped playing other sports.
"He used to play basketball, golf, bowling, do power-lifting and track," Malika Miles said of her 29-year-old son, who has Down syndrome. "This feels real to him. He really feels he's a part of the Blackhawks."
For wounded military veterans, the festival rekindles the feeling of camaraderie and helps heal the physical and mental scars incurred in war.
The parking lot outside the AdventlHealth Ice Center resembled a military base camp, with platoons of players sitting and talking by their equipment trailers, waiting for their gear to dry before their next game.

"It's therapeutic for these guys," said Joey Martell, an Air Force veteran and captain of the Capital Beltway Warriors, who defeated Medina's Alaska team 6-2 Saturday and won the festival's Warrior B Freedom Division championship Sunday with a 5-3 win against the Blackhawks Warriors. "A lot of the guys, they suffer from the PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome), the stress, but we don't worry about that here. We play hockey here."
James Sadecki entered the rink Friday afternoon with a guide dog leash in one hand and a goalie stick in the other. An hour later, the blind retired Air Force veteran from Connecticut was in the net stopping shots that he could hear but not see.
Blind/visually impaired players use metal pucks with ball bearings inside that produce a clanging sound that make it easier to follow. For Sadecki, playing hockey and being on ice gives him independence.
"I've been blind now for 15 years and skating is the most freedom I've felt as a blind person," said Sadecki, who lost his sight in an accident and has been playing blind hockey for three years. "It's something I can do on my own, I don't have to hold on to anybody. It's refreshing, going fast and everything."