Special needs hockey team puts happy kids on the iceFeb. 3, 2010
Coach Don Homan helps instruct a player on Utah County's special needs hockey team during practice at Peak's Ice Arena in Provo on Saturday, Jan. 30, 2010. The team is made up of kids 7 to 21 who have autism, Asperger's and other mental and behavioral disorders that won't allow them to play on other teams. JAMES ROH/Daily Herald
Heidi Toth - Daily Herald | Posted: Sunday, January 31, 2010 12:15 am
Online Version
PROVO -- People at the Peaks Ice Arena in the early afternoon on Saturdays might see some hockey players who don't meet the stereotype.
The young men and women on the ice haven't lost any teeth to wayward pucks or hockey sticks. They don't fight with each other. There's not much need for a penalty box.
They also all have some form of mental disorder -- Asperger's, autism, Down syndrome and more. Their games don't include an opponent; a local junior varsity team comes to play, which for this league is more like assisting the players to move the puck down the ice and score.
This is Utah County's special needs hockey team, a group of people age 7 years to 21 years old who, while on the ice, are the same as the rest of their classmates who suit up in uniforms and play sports. Deann Torsak, whose 12-year-old son has played since the league's inception three years ago, said this team gives the players an identity and acceptance they don't find elsewhere.
"It gives them just that sense that, 'You know what, I'm just as normal as everybody else. I play hockey,'" she said. "They all take extreme pride in that."
The league began when a family from Chicago moved to Utah. The son had played on a special needs team there. His mother started looking for a team in Utah.
She got into contact with Mike Holmes, the president of the Special Needs Athletic Foundation who runs a Triple A hockey organization in Salt Lake. He told her there was no such league here. He recognized that her son needed this team.
"He was just very, very, very into hockey," Holmes said. "It was one of the few things that cognizantly he could understand and participate in and actually do pretty well."
Two teams operate now, one in Utah County and one in Salt Lake County. Holmes's hockey organization funds it, which is difficult but worth it, as "just being around these kids is an absolute delight."
So is being on the ice for these youth. Torsak said she knows a player who wears his hockey jersey every Halloween, and when someone compliments his costume, he's quick to say it's no costume; he really is a hockey player. Several of the children have been playing for three years, but every year a few new ones come and a few players decide to stop playing. But each of them has found a niche on the rink that they haven't found elsewhere.
"Most kids, I guess, when you look at that group, their peers kind of put them down," she said. "There's none of that there. Everyone's the same. They're all equal. They have friends at hockey."
The league also needs help. Holmes said he expects they'll be funding the league again this year, but he's hoping to get a little community involvement to cover some of the costs. The foundation is having a motorcycle ride with the Utah Grizzlies mascot on March 27, the same day as the Utah Grizzlies' last home hockey game.
Grizzbee's Ride will include an arm-wrestling championship, a tattoo-judging contest, provided the body art is tasteful and appropriately placed, a lunch and tickets to the game that night. The ride will head down into Utah County west of Utah Lake then back through Tooele and to the E Center in West Valley.
"That, we think will be sufficient to get us over the hump," he said.
People interested in going on the ride or donating to the league can contact Holmes at (801) 918-8910 or at mholmes@nwregulators.com.
