Anna Duke
Features Editor
If hockey wasn’t a hard enough sport, try playing without your legs! Last Saturday, along with two local teams, the College of Wooster Hockey Club participated in the Sled Hockey Charity Games. The club got the chance to experience what it was like to play adaptive hockey while rasing money to benefit the Adaptive Sports Program of Ohio’s (ASPO) sled hockey team, the Wayne County Wildcats.
Wooster’s hockey team got involved with the adaptive sports program after hearing Lisa Followay, head of ASPO, give a presentation for Wooster athletes in the Timken Gymnasium last spring. The team organized the tournament and raised money by charging a $5 entry fee for the matchup.
Just as in ice hockey, sled hockey is played with 10 players and similar rules, but instead of the players wearing ice skates, they sit on a metal sled. Participants use two shortened hockey sticks with spikes to propel them forward as well as to shoot and pass the puck. Instead of three 20 minute periods, the sled hockey periods are 15 minutes.
The College’s team was at a large disadvantage going into the tournament; they had never played sled hockey before and the first local team they were facing, the Wooster Oilers, had participated in the charity event for two years running as a Tier III junior ice hockey team.
From the moment the game started, the Oilers dominated. Wooster struggled to move around the ice quickly enough to get the puck to each other. The Oilers scored a quick goal within the first minute of play, setting the tone for the game. Despite dominating Wooster’s ice, however, the Oilers managed to only score once more for the entire game.
During the second period, Wooster managed to get a feel for the modified game and moved around the ice with more ease. To speed up the game, two players from the Wildcats were sent in to help each team. Having two players with experience on the ice made the game much more fluid. With an assist from Connor Brown ’15, Erik Knotts, a Wildcat player, scored a goal for Wooster.
“It was pretty hard to get used to the balance of [the sled]” said Jonathan West ’15, team captain. “I thought it would be more of an upper body work out, but it was more like [balancing] on your hips.”
After playing for two shortened periods instead of three, Wooster fell to the Oilers 2-1. Wooster dominated the second half with five attempts on goal in the second half as compared to the Oilers two. The Oilers went on to play the Wildcats in the final game of the tournament which resulted in a tie, 2-2.
“It’s really amazing that these kids can compete in this sport at such a high level,” said West. “It makes you really appreciate your legs.”
The Wooster hockey team has been grown over the years and this season they have doubled in size.
“We’ve had a lot of hockey players that never knew [Wooster] had a team who had played a couple of years in high school come out,” said West. The team practices at least twice a week and is also part of a local men’s league team. Just like varsity teams, they play games against other schools in the NCAC.