As posted at: www.news-sentinel.com
By Blake Sebring
of The News-Sentinel
As a boy, Kevin Hughes was a huge Fort Wayne Komets fan, but he was born with spina bifida Myelomeningocele, so playing was never an option.
“It was a passion, but when I grew up, wheelchair basketball was the only thing available in this area,” he said. “Then I saw they had a sled hockey clinic in Chicago, so I drove up and I loved it.”
So you can imagine how excited Hughes is that McMillen Park Ice Arena will host a sled hockey demonstration 4:30-7 p.m. Sunday. The youth services coordinator for the League for the Blind and Disabled, Hughes has been making sure every disabled athlete in the area hears about the opportunity. He’s also the coach of the nationally ranked Turnstone Flyers youth wheelchair basketball team.
“I love basketball and all the other sports, but hockey is by far the most exciting,” he said. “It’s been a very easy transition to get excited about and work hard at.”
Hughes has been known to drive four hours to Chicago for a two-hour sled hockey practice, and last year he played in a Chicago tournament.
The demonstration, co-sponsored by Turnstone, is the idea of Randy Kwapis of Mobility Sports, who moved to Fort Wayne from the Detroit area this summer. His son Matt, a junior at Carroll High School, was also born with spina bifida and has used a wheelchair since age 7.
“Matt has been playing for about three years, but that wasn’t an option here without driving for three hours,” Randy Kwapis said. “It’s really big in Canada, and in the United States there might be 1,200 to 1,500 players. There were maybe 1,000 there years ago.”
Randy Kwapis approached McMillen Ice Arena Manager Dennis Smith about the possibility of an exhibition.
“This is a city rink, and it should be for everyone,” Smith said. “I want everybody to have an opportunity. Sometimes kids take it for granted how easy they have it, and here there are kids and adults who wish they could do what some of those kids could do and they found a way to make it happen.”
Sled hockey uses almost all the rules of a regular hockey game, with checking, passing and line changes. It was invented in Stockholm, Sweden, in the early 1960s and is a popular sport in the Paralympic Games.Players ride sleds, using pegs on the butt end of their two sticks, on a full sheet of ice. The best shooters can supposedly blast the puck nearly 30 mph.
“It’s amazing to watch these guys play,” Kwapis said. “Not only is it awesome to watch them play hockey, but also to see how talented they are at skating, how graceful they are.”
The exhibition will include players form Grand Rapids, Mich., and Columbus, Ohio - along with Hughes. Kwapis, who builds wheelchairs used for sports, is donating most of the equipment. A few of the sleds will be available for the public to try out after the exhibition.
“Fort Wayne is such a perfect location because there are teams in Chicago, Cleveland, St. Louis, Grand Rapids, Columbus and Detroit,” Kwapis said. “The hard part is getting a local program off the ground so we can get enough players out to practice because there are plenty of tournaments to play in.”
