The Cat5 Canes: Special-needs hockey team forms locally, hopes to play Raleigh teamJan. 4, 2010
Journal Photo by Walt Unks
By Mary Giunca | Journal Reporter
Published: December 29, 2009
Special-needs children often spend a good part of their childhoods on the sidelines, with few opportunities for regular physical exercise and the socialization that it brings.
But local hockey parent and coach Paul Hopgood is hoping to change that with a newly formed special hockey team, the Cat5 Canes West.
"There's some kind of connection between skating and these kids," he said. "They like it."
The team practices on Sunday afternoons at Joel Coliseum Annex from 4:30 to 5:30.
Hopgood has two sons who play hockey and a daughter, 4, who has developmental delays.
In the fall, he got interested in helping the Cat5 Canes, a special hockey team he had heard about in Raleigh. In soliciting volunteers for that effort, he heard so much enthusiasm for starting a team here that he decided to go ahead. The team had its first practice earlier this month.
Many of the children get excited as they don their skates, jerseys and shin guards and head out onto the ice. Spills are frequent, but so are high fives from mentors when they get up and keep skating. The echo in the rink drowns out cries of, "Mommy" and "Look."
Some children use walkers and chairs to help them with balance. For the smaller ones, a mentor on each side keeps them going. Falls tend to come in two varieties: a sudden fall to the knees with a quick rise, or a flat out bug-on-your-back fall with much help and encouragement from mentors.
Keeping the children on the ice is important, Hopgood said. Anyone who feels overwhelmed takes a timeout at the player's bench to one side where parents offer encouragement. Then it's back to practice.
There are 12 children on the team roster, three coaches and a dozen children and adult mentors.
The program is a joint venture between the Triangle Special Hockey Association in Raleigh and the Winston-Salem Youth Hockey Association. Both associations are nonprofit, and there is no charge to participate. The equipment is furnished by Triangle Special Hockey, which supports the Raleigh team.
Team members have a variety of disabilities, including autism, Down syndrome and fetal alcohol syndrome. Children are 5 to 13, but the program can take those as old as 17. Children need to be able to walk unassisted. Hopgood said he hopes to expand the program to include sled hockey for children who can't skate and to eventually have two or three teams in the area.
Hopgood said he intends to progress to scrimmages, once the majority of children can skate, with a goal of eventually playing the special hockey team in Raleigh.
If parents have doubts about whether their children can handle the ice, Hopgood tells them to give the practice a try.
Playing on a team offers experiences that can't be duplicated at home or at school, he said.
Children learn to work with each other toward a common goal, take direction from coaches and to win and lose gracefully.
The team experience is good for parents, as well, he said. Parents of special-needs children can often get wrapped up in the extra care required to help their children. That can be intense and isolating. With athletics, parents can enjoy a chance to sit in the stands, have fun and watch their children play a sport.
Kris Drum said that for her son Noah, 11, being able to don a uniform is a huge attraction. Noah has Down syndrome and he has a pacemaker, which means that he can't play contact sports.
She likes the exercise playing hockey gives Noah and the confidence it builds.
"Finally he can say to his brother, ‘I can do something you can't do,'" she said.
Most of the children had not been on ice before attending their first practice a few weeks ago.
Hopgood said that after the first practice was over, one of the adults told him that she was amazed at how well the children did.
The children fall down, and they cry for their mommies, but that happens on all hockey teams, Hopgood said. His goal is to have a mentor work with the same team member each time so that he or she can respond to individual needs.
For Lucy Dean, 8, the program has already been a confidence booster. Lucy is developmentally delayed, her mother, Stephanie Dean, said.
Lucy had taken five figure-skating lessons in a mainstream class and was accustomed to being behind the others. At special-hockey practice, she is one of the few children who can consistently stay up on the ice.
"She loves special-needs sports because she doesn't need to stress over how good she is," Dean said of her daughter.
For special-needs children, every effort counts, she said."The more you do, the easier it is," she said. "You get out there and try your best."
mgiunca@wsjournal.com
