Photos from the 6th Annual Hockey Disabled Festival

I heard the Stanley Cup is leaving Laurel on Friday, so I made a last-minute trip to see it Thursday night. That was a fantastic decision. There were only a couple of games on Thursday, so it was nice to learn my way around The Gardens IceHouse before it's overtaken by crowds on Saturday. (P.S. As a hockey fanatic, I kind of loved it there and never wanted to leave.) Here are a few fun photos from the night.

I'm not sure what's going on here. It would appear that the NOVA Cool Cats mascot may also be the goalie coach. Is there anything that Catze can't do?

It was really cool to see the mascots walking around throughout the evening.

This is the Baltimore Saints mascot celebrating a goal.


Something I thought was really cool about the Gardens IceHouse. Upstairs they have a few seats that were taken from old arenas throughout the country and throughout the decades. According to the Certificate of Authenticity you see here, some were from the Detroit Olympia, the Home of the Detroit Red Wings from 1912 to 1970. They also had seats from Boston Gardens, Camden Yards, and former arenas to the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens.

Hockey changes lives

On Wednesday this week, I was pleasantly surprised to see one of my blog posts linked here, to the blog for the USA Hockey Disabled Festival. The blog is written by Mark Miller, the Communications Director for the American Special Hockey Association, and I would not even know about the Festival were it not for his diligent work in getting the word out about the Festival. I think that every blogger loves those little moments of validation where we have actual, solid proof that someone is reading what we write and we are not just spewing words randomly into the blogosphere for nothing. Getting any props from a humble blog like mine is a pretty great feeling, but the mention in the HockeyFest blog was more than just a general shout-out. For one brief moment, I felt like I was a part of something.

I have been looking forward to the 6th Annual Hockey Disabled Festival ever since I learned of its existence (admittedly, not terribly long ago!) I wrote about how much I enjoyed watching the U.S. Paralympic Games this year, and I have been telling everyone about the Festival in Laurel this weekend. The Paralympics, like the hockey games this weekend, are something that I feel not enough people are exposed to and (generally speaking) it falls under the radar of most of us as we go about our everyday life. This is something that frustrates me because I am so enthusiastic about sports, and feel so strongly about supporting disabled athletes. Professional athletes generally make a lot of money and they are always referred to as "role models" but I don't buy into that so much. I honestly don't know of any professional athlete who is more of a role model than someone like Joe Bowser, who lost his leg from an injury in Iraq, and will play for the USA Standing Amputee Team this weekend in Laurel. As he says in the interview in USA Hockey Magazine,

...you have to play with the cards they deal you. You have to adapt and overcome any kind of injury or disability you have and make the best of it.

and watching some of the players this weekend, you will see people who have not only learned to adapt and overcome, but persevere. Unfortunately, it really is something you have to see with your own eyes to understand how inspiring it is to watch these athletes at work. I have told so many people about the Festival and have had some people ask a few questions about it, but most people have no knowledge whatsoever of the Paralympics, or disabled sports... they have no idea what to expect. So, oftentimes when I tell someone about the Festival and invite them to go with me, they just don't seem to think it's going to be any fun. Many times, the response I receive is something to the effect of, "Aww, that's so nice that you're doing that!" When I hear that, I know that they don't get it. They just don't understand.

Many of the folks I've invited to the Festival seem to think it's something to do as a way to volunteer time and support, more so than a fun and exciting way to spend their weekend. This is the hardest thing to get through to people who haven't been exposed to this kind of sporting event before. While I'm sure that any athlete appreciates support and loves to hear a crowd cheering, providing applause is not the reason to go to Laurel this weekend; go to Laurel and catch a game this weekend because it is FUN! When I see the folks who play sled hockey, or watch the Paralympians compete, I feel strength. I feel hope. Life is full of challenges for everyone, and it's easy to let things build up and get you down. But when I see someone like Joe Bowser play... I know that everything is going to be alright. It helps me to meet my own challenges, and it puts things into perspective. I often get stuck in a rut. I go to work, I go home, I'm exhausted, I go to my second job on the weekends just to make ends meet... It's easy to feel like life is repetitive and exhausting, and we don't take the time to consider our sense of purpose. It's easy to get depressed. But like Joe Bowser says, you have to adapt and overcome. And when I consider how he has overcome obstacles that are unimaginable to me, and is such a role model for serving his country, hanging on to the sport that he loves, and working to improve the lives of others... it's a much-needed reminder that we all need to turn a bad situation into an opportunity and make it work. Watching people who have overcome obstacles greater than my own, and seeing them compete as more of an athlete than I will ever be... that is a truly moving, empowering experience.

If you are unable to make it to the Festival this weekend in Laurel, then please try and make it to your television set on Saturday afternoon. NBC will broadcast a 90-minute highlights show from the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games. If you can't make it to Laurel to meet the members of the gold medal winning sled hockey team, please take the time to watch them on television and see for yourself why this is such an uplifting, exciting thing to watch. It's more fun than you might think, but you'll never know until you try.

Tonight, I was able to convince a friend to go to Laurel for the first night of the Festival. The Stanley Cup was there, and he is a Capitals season ticket holder, so it wasn't so hard to convince him to make the trip. Although, I could see his shoulders slump a little bit when I told him that after getting our pictures taken with the Cup, I wanted to watch a couple games. He is a good friend and he indulged me as we went into one of the hockey rinks inside Gardens IceHouse. We showed up in the middle of a special hockey game and looked through the program to get a better idea of who we were watching and where they were from. After a while, he was getting into it, too. We had a great time! We were going to leave around 9:15 and I asked if he wanted to leave but he said, "It's over at 9:40? Why don't we just stay and watch the end of the game?" And I'm glad he did because the game got so much more exciting as it went on! There were kids of all ages on the ice and we saw some impressive saves by the goalie, some breakaway shots, and I'm pretty sure one player had a hat trick. (We did not throw our hats on the ice, that may not have gone over so well.) On the ride home, he was grateful for having learned about the Festival and was suddenly asking questions about the events for the remainder of the weekend. He is now very excited to attend the USA Warrior events on Saturday and during the ride home he was making a mental list of military friends he wants to invite. It was fun to see his reaction, which was much like my own, in questioning, "Why don't more people know about this? This is awesome! We should tell people!" Indeed we should. We will encourage everyone to come out and catch a game or an event or two in Laurel. And if they listen, they will thank us. Just as he thanked me, and I thanked Mark Miller. And when we're done, we will all thank the athletes and the family members who support them. For showing us the strength and fortitude of the human spirit.

USA hockey gold medal

The 2010 Paralympic Games have ended with a much sweeter outcome for USA hockey than we saw last month. Sled hockey, that is. Team USA didn't just win the gold medal at the Paralympic Games, they dominated every team. The games are set up tournament style, much like the Olympic Games. The U.S. beat Korea 5-0, Czech Republic 3-0, Japan 6-0, Norway 3-0 and Japan again 2-0 for the gold medal. (Japan beat Canada, which helped them advance to the gold medal game while team Canada played Norway for the bronze. Norway won, Canada did not medal in sled hockey.)

Team USA played five games and did not allow a single goal in the entire tournament. That is amazing. But that's just one of numerous amazing things I witnessed in the Paralympic coverage.

Every night last week at 11:00 p.m., I deprived myself of sleep to watch the Paralympic highlights. During this time, I watched amputees play hockey, I watched blind people ski down the hills in Whisler - slalom style. My jaw hung open, thoroughly impressed, as I watched a man with no arms cross-country ski. To my amazement, the event I was watching was not just cross-country skiing, it was Biathlon. He then proceeded to the shooting range, then got back up and finished his 12.5k cross-country ski. This was Josef Giesen from Germany, who went on to win the bronze medal.

Watching these athletes affected me very, very deeply. I enjoy watching sporting events and competitions, but the perseverance I saw in these athletes was awe-inspiring. Watching these people overcome the odds and achieve this level of competition is indescribable. You simply have to see it for yourself.

Therein lies the problem. NBC owns the rights to the 2010 Olympics and Paralympics, but they made the decision to show only the two hours of highlights on Universal Sports - a channel that most people don't have, or may not even know if they have it. Unless you go out of your way to seek out the Paralympic coverage, it is very easy to let the events just slip by you. I'm glad I did not let that happen, but I can't help but question who is making decisions for NBC. They decided not to show these games, but they had plenty of airtime for the Marriage Ref and other sub-par reality television.

It really perplexes me that there was so little broadcast coverage for the Paralympics. I understand that there is not an audience for them like there is for the Olympics, but there never will be if the public never has any exposure to them. It makes no sense. All of the tragic backstories of the athletes were dragged out and mentioned endlessly throughout the Olympic Games. The whole world wanted Joannie Rochette to win a medal for figure skating after her mother passed away. The suspense of whether or not Lindsay Vonn could compete with her shin injury was built up to a climactic and triumphant finish when she won the gold medal.

I don't wish to diminish the challenges the athletes faced, but I do wish to point out that perseverance and overcoming tragedy is a big theme every year in the Olympics. Yet the Paralympics, where every athlete who competes has already overcome odds, is not even mentioned in the mainstream. Du Haitao of China lost both of his arms playing with high-voltage electricity wires when he was four years old. Two of the four U.S. gold medals were won by Alana Nichols, the first woman to win gold medals at both the winter and summer Paralympic Games. I could go on and on, but I will spare you any additional rambling. I would simply like to argue that a double amputee does not compare with an injured shin on the tragedy scale.

Everyone in life feels discouraged at some point, and most of us have felt sorry for ourselves, feeling like the odds are against us at any given time. There is nowhere better than the Paralympics to truly witness the strength of the human spirit. If you ever find yourself feeling powerless and feeling sorry for yourself, watch a visually impaired person ski slalom down a hill. Or someone with no arms ski cross-country without poles. It will put things into perspective real quick. I hope the 2012 Summer Paralympics find a bigger audience. I also hope that the fact that Russia won more Paralympic medals than any other country helps ease the sting they felt at the Olympics. It's good to know that some Russian jobs are safe this time around.

Au revoir, Winter Olympics!

For the last sixteen days I've been glued to my television set and watching the Winter Olympics. I hate to see them go, but when I saw William Shatner talking about having sex in a canoe, I knew it was really over.

Closing ceremonies aside, there has been plenty of entertainment during this year's Olympics. Every day since they began, I have come home from work, turned on the TV, finished up some work on the computer, and had the Olympics on for the rest of the evening. It's been wonderful! Some events I watched with great excitement (hockey) some I just watched passively (figure skating) and some I watched reluctantly (curling.) But the Olympics and I have been together throughout and I'm really going to miss having a constant competition to watch.

I don't know when I became such a sports fan. I think it was when I moved to Washington, DC. When I lived in Iowa, I was a C-Span junkie and constantly watched that network or the news. I have always been a hockey fanatic, but I think that when I moved to DC and surrounded by C-Span all day at work and living inside the beltway, my attention turned to sports to escape the total immersion in the political climate. I was ready to cancel my cable television until I found out I could add a sports package for $5 a month. I wanted to reach into the phone and hug the representative from the cable company when she signed me up.

Now I have traded watching C-Span in Iowa for watching ESPN, VS and the NHL Network in Washington. I actually blame it on the fact that there is not much entertainment on television anymore. Whatever the reason for my attention toward sporting events, I have really enjoyed the Olympics this year and I am really hoping that I will be able to watch some of the Winter Paralympic Games. The opening ceremonies will begin on March 12th in Vancouver at 9:00 p.m. I have never paid much attention to the Paralympic games, but after watching Murderball a few months ago and currently reading Mark Zupan's biography, I have a new-found interest in the competition. If I can go from being half asleep to jumping out of my bed in excitement at watching Latvia tie up a game against the Czech Republic, I can surely cheer enthusiastically for Team USA in Sledge Hockey.

It's all the spirit of competition, and that's what makes the Olympic games great. The athletes compete so hard and so passionately, and it's inspiring to watch someone compete when it clearly means so much to them. The Paralympic games will be no different. I actually anticipate they will be even more so. It is unfortunate that I've had to go to such great lengths to find out if the events will be televised. It is also unfortunate that when I mention the Paralympics to others, they often get them confused with the Special Olympics. It is a very different type of competition. If you are reading this and you do not know the difference, I think it has a lot to do with the fact that the Paralympics do not get much media coverage. Televising the events would do a lot to show the perseverance of people with physical disabilities. One paralympic athlete was named to the Canadian Olympic team although in the end he did not have a chance to compete.

In my quest to find out if I will be able to watch the Paralympics after all, I did find a petition online to protest the decision not to work out a deal with NBC for the Paralympic games. I urge you to learn more about the games, and watch online as I will be doing and cheering once again for Team USA: www.petitiononline.com/USOCTV/petition.html