Stick Handling

By Ian Langford

When Robb Carmichael first pulled into the parking lot of Toronto’s Bloorview MacMillan Children’s Centre in 1979, he had no idea of the impact his volunteering would later have on people with disabilities.

He recalls that he was feeling down at the time, and expected that the atmosphere in the small rehabilitation centre would be similarly depressing. It was quite the opposite.

"When I walked in, there was a whole bunch of kids in wheelchairs. They were giving me the gears and playing tricks on me and having a great time," Carmichael says. "It really opened my eyes to the whole world of people with disabilities."

He later was asked to help out with an exhibition floor hockey game that was arranged between Bloorview and Sunnyview schools. He coached his first game of wheelchair hockey that day.

"I really got excited about it, to see the players getting so excited about being competitive and learning the game of hockey," Carmichael says.

Having enjoyed the experience so much, Carmichael began to organize more frequent wheelchair hockey games. By 1981, he was beginning to envision a formal league for people with limited upper-body strength and mobility, typically power wheelchair users. The game was played on a gymnasium floor with lightweight plastic hockey sticks, a whiffle ball and traditional hockey nets.

There were four teams that first year. The league continued to grow until finally, in 1986, Carmichael decided to register the league as an official charity, and the Canadian Electric Wheelchair Hockey Association (CEWHA) was born. The five founding members formed the board of directors. The Toronto division now consists of eight teams.

Mike Lavalle first started playing wheelchair hockey in 1985 and has been competing in the Toronto division ever since. Lavalle, 30, who is paraplegic, says he enjoys the opportunity to be a leader, someone for the younger players to look up to. This past season Lavalle was the first player to score 100 goals in a season in the history of the CEWHA. He has represented Toronto in the nationals six times.

A big part of the CEWHA is its volunteers. Dean Hachey has been coaching in the Toronto division for 11 years. He recalls meeting Carmichael when the two worked together at Apple Computers. One night, Carmichael invited Hachey to see a game of wheelchair hockey.

"He kind of tricked me. It so happened that game was one where they didn’t have a coach. I ended up coaching the first time I went," Hachey says. "I was really nervous, but everyone made me feel at home. I realized it was just Canadian kids playing hockey, like I loved to do."

The Canadian Electric Wheelchair Hockey Association was intended to be national in scope right from the beginning, hence its name. Carmichael had hoped the league would eventually include more than just Toronto-based teams. In 1989, Carmichael heard about a group that was playing wheelchair hockey in Calgary. The Calgary Power Hockey League (CPHL) had been formed in 1985 and included four teams. After several discussions between Carmichael and Bruce Bostrom, then-president of the CPHL, Bostrom agreed to formally merge his league with the CEWHA.

In 1991, Calgary and Toronto competed for the Allied Cup at Olympic Park in Calgary in the first-ever CEWHA National Championship, which Toronto won. In fact, the Toronto division dominated the championships until 2000, when Calgary took home the title.

Mike Jorgensen was a member of that team, and has represented Calgary in the national championship six times. Jorgensen, who has muscular dystrophy, has been playing wheelchair hockey as a goaltender for more than 10 years.

"The competitiveness is a big thing for me," says Jorgensen about the game. "Also, getting together with friends, and people with similar disabilities."

Jason Hebert is the president of the CPHL. He first got involved with the league in 1998 as a coach after attending a national championship tournament with a friend who plays. Hebert says that coaching wheelchair hockey is much the same as conventional hockey. He says he volunteers with the league because "I get a chance to give back, and help teach players about the game of hockey."

In 1992, one of Toronto’s long-time players moved to Hamilton, Ontario, and began to organize local teams, playing as part of the Toronto division. By 2000, Hamilton had enough players for three teams, and now competes as the Hamilton division.

A year later, Carmichael was approached by Caroline Dancel, a parent in London, Ontario. Her son, Gregory, had heard about wheelchair hockey, and the family was interested in starting a division in southwestern Ontario. In 1993, the Southwestern Ontario division became the third in the steadily expanding hockey league. Today, the Southwestern division includes two teams from London and one from Windsor.

Distance wasn’t a deterrent to Jeff Preston playing wheelchair hockey. The 19-year-old native of Port Elgin, Ontario, remembers travelling two and a half hours to London each week to compete in the London division of the CEWHA. Now that he attends the city’s University of Western Ontario, it is a much shorter trip. Preston, who has congenital muscular dystrophy, says the league is a great opportunity to develop long-term friendships.

"It offers so much to players," Preston says. "Any player can come out and play. It doesn’t really matter what their disability is."

Gregory Dancel’s father, Robert, was a referee for three years with the London division before moving into coaching. He says the most rewarding part about coaching is seeing players achieve what they never thought possible.

"It’s a good feeling to see players accomplish things. Their faces light up," Dancel says.

The growth of the league did not stop there. Word of the league eventually spread to Victoria, B.C. A group of people here contacted the league, and Caroline Dancel and Deirdre Farrell travelled to Victoria to help them get started. The Vancouver Island division was formed in 1998 and is now made up of three teams.

Ryan Heuman, 21, first heard about wheelchair hockey from another player when he was in the Queen Alexandra hospital in Victoria for surgery some four years ago. Heuman, who has cerebral palsy, gave it a try – and hasn’t looked back since.

"I love coming out and playing every week, and just the camaraderie with the guys," Heuman says. "It’s really fun."

Tim McGonigle started coaching in Victoria three years ago. Having coached minor hockey in the past, he says he enjoys seeing players experience the benefits of team sport.

"I think I get more out of it than they do," McGonigle says. "Watching a player blossom not only as a player, but as a person, is just awesome."

A couple of years ago, Carmichael stepped down as president of the CEWHA, and was replaced by Caroline Dancel. Carmichael says it was gratifying to work with kids who, because of their disabilities, were not able to participate in and enjoy many other sports.

"The most rewarding part for me was seeing some of the most severely disabled people, who would play defence or goal, moving their chairs just enough to break up a play," Carmichael says. "They would never score all the goals, or get the glory... but for that brief moment in time, they were a real hero."

This past August, the CEWHA National Championship headed west to Victoria, B.C. The three-day event included all-star teams from the four divisions: the Calgary Selects, the London Jaguars, the Victoria Storm and the Toronto Rock.

Defending champions Calgary Selects went through the round-robin portion of the tournament as the only undefeated team at 3-0.

Toronto defeated Victoria 5-1 in the first semi-final, while Calgary beat London by the same score in the other semi-final, to set up a rematch between the 2000 National Championship finalists.

Calgary and Toronto exchanged goals in an intense first period, and it ended with the teams tied at 2-2. In the second period, Calgary took control with goals by Sean Bons and Rob Peterson to take the lead at 4-2, with just one period left to play.

Calgary appeared well on their way to victory – until Faisal Burale scored for Toronto with 1:04 left, reducing the deficit to just one goal. With time running out, Burale carried the ball into the Calgary zone for one last scoring opportunity. In a great display of skill, Burale weaved his way through the Calgary defence and tucked the ball into the back of the net to tie the game at 4-4 with 0:28 to play.

After a scoreless five-minute overtime period, the game entered into a three-person shootout to determine the title. With Mike Lavalle and Sarah Huha scoring on their first shots, Calgary needed to score to keep the shootout going. Sean Bons carried the ball to the Toronto net and shot as the crowd looked on. Toronto Rock goalie Eli Shupak made a huge save to complete the comeback and recapture the Allied Cup for Toronto.

In the third-place game, London defeated Victoria by a score of 4-0. In what was an exciting tournament featuring great hockey and sportsmanship, London’s Robbie Hernandez won tournament MVP honours. Jordan Marks of Victoria was named most sportsmanlike player, while Calgary’s Mike Falconer was the leading scorer.

To find out how you can get involved with wheelchair hockey, call the CEWHA at (416) 757-8544, or visit www.cewha.com.

(Ian Langford is a freelance writer living in Pickering, Ontario.)