If you have ever wanted to try sledge hockey, well Saturday is your chance.
Kamloops adapted sports association in partnership with PacificSport Interior BC will host an open house for sledge hockey Saturday evening (February, 29) at Mac Island. PacificSport’s Katie Klassen says anyone and everyone is invited to try it out. “We applied for a grant through ViaSport, it’s a 2020 winter spirit grant, to host a sort of celebration for celebrating the 10 year anniversary of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic and Paralympic games. So we’re inviting everyone out to come and try sledge hockey at the McArthur Island Olympic ice.”
Klassen says that the only thing you will need is yourself. “We have all the equipment. Sleds, helmets, gloves and sticks. So just wear warmer clothes. It starts at 6:00. We’re going to have cake to celebrate and coffee and hot chocolate, and then everyone can hit the ice and try this new and exciting sport.”
Andrew Abley is a Sledge Hockey player here in Kamloops and is helping people young and old, disabled and able-bodied get into the sport. “A lot of guys try to make it like hockey, I mean it is hockey, but there are things like skating backwards that you can’t do on a sled. So you really have to work on your stick-handling and your cutting off angles where people are coming down the ice which is totally different.”
Abley says it has been running a sledge hockey program in Kamloops for about one year. “We started this time last year. The nice thing with Kamloops is we got that beautiful facility over at McArthur Park that’s set up for Sledge Hockey. There’s not a lot of community where the ice is level with the penalty box where you can just come right onto the ice.”
Klassen says in December they hosted a sledge hockey for kids program and they were able to try it out and they noticed that sledges were too big for them so it was able to find a way to buy seven new sledges for about $6,000. “It was a little bit challenging for them to try the sport and a lot of topping over and the buckets were a little bit too big. I know that Andrew really wants to grow this program for adults and youth. So ViaSport had a grant where we were able to purchase seven [sledges]. So $3,000 came from ViaSport and Pacific Sport was able to match that.”
It also has had the opportunity to help out some in the school system who were unable to go for a regular skate with their classmates. Abley says he went out and helped those kids get into a sledge and get on the ice which they probably wouldn’t have done otherwise. “I don’t think words can describe how powerful that is to see a kid that has never skated with his class before to be able to get on the ice with his class and be a part of this class. It was incredible to see and be involved and not adapted. They’re not in a wheelchair on the ice, they’re actually in a sled skating. It’s a very cool thing… We are very lucky to have this facility. I don’t even think Kelowna has this kind of a facility which is a hats up on us.”
A weekly sledge hockey program, open to people of all abilities, is run by the City and the KASA at the McArthur Island Sport and Event Centre from October to March. For more information on the Sledge Hockey Open House, visit the Facebook event page here or contact Klassen at 250-828-3346 or kklassen@pacficsport.com. The Open House runs from 6:00 pm until 8:30.
