State’s sled program brings opportunity S


By Matt Mackinder


led hockey is a sport that’s starting to grow in many parts of the United States, and Colorado


is no exception. Played similarly to ice hockey, but on sleds, the


game gives disabled individu- als a sense of belonging as well as a strong dose of camaraderie and competition. Sled hockey is played like


traditional hockey on a stan- dard rink. Players sit in spe- cially designed sleds that rest on skate blades. They use two short hockey sticks with blades on one end to control the puck and metal picks on the other end to propel them across the ice.


The game has six players on


a team, including the goal- tender. The nets are regula- tion-sized and three 15-minute periods are played. “For a lot of our players,


Nikko Landeros and the rest of the Colorado Sled Hockey program have tasted their fair share of suc- cess on the national stage in recent years.


they’re in a (wheel) chair and they’re still ath- letic,” said Colorado Sled Hockey coaching director Justin Lauzon. “They hear about sled hockey and they get interested and some come out and see what it’s all about.” Lauzon explains that being disabled doesn’t mean people have to live their lives feeling sorry


for themselves. Sled hockey is an outlet for them to still feel like they can accomplish everyday tasks. “Some feel a sense of wanting to keep away once


they get injured,” said Lauzon. “For those who have been injured, they’ve been used to people looking and staring (at them).


“We need to reach out to


those wallflowers and show them that we’re a team and we’re altogether. From kids to adults, some people in our organization say that any confidence they might have is from sled hockey; we think we can be that missing piece in their life.” Many times, having peo-


ple witness the game is all it takes to get them involved. “For some that may be


skeptical, once they come to a practice they see that there’s checking and the game is played just like ice hockey, except we’re on sleds,” Lauzon added. “We’ll


do anything to include anyone.” Colorado Sled Hockey (CSH), whose parent


organization is the Colorado Adaptive Sports Foun- dation, has been around since 1995 with player involvement fluctuating during that time span. The CSH started as a program strictly for adults, but has had its share of children and


women participate along the way, too. The group skates every Saturday morning at the Ice Ranch in Littleton. “About six or eight years ago, youth players


started to come out and skate with us,” Lauzon explained. “Now, we’ve got anywhere between 50- 60 kids in the program with about 15 adults. New players come sporadically, but a lot of them stay for the long haul.” Colorado starts its Midwest Sled Hockey League


(MWSHL) season in Vadnais Heights, Minn., this month. The MWSHL, sanctioned by USA Hockey, runs several tournaments throughout the season and concludes in the spring with a national tourna- ment. Colorado won the Tier II national champion- ship last season. Also last year, the NHL sponsored the first Sled


Hockey Classic and Colorado came out victorious. This season’s event is scheduled for the weekend before Thanksgiving in Voorhees, N.J. “The (Colorado) Avalanche was actually the first


NHL team to support sled hockey,” said Lauzon. “The NHL wishes more teams would support their local sled hockey teams.” At the end of the day, Lauzon said what matters


most is that players are comfortable and playing the game with a smile. “The growth of sled hockey is just exploding,”


Lauzon said. “Across the country, more teams and more players are popping up all the time. We have the potential to reach so many players and show these people that we can offer them something good.”


RubberHockey.com 15


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20