CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. - While many were watching a thrilling sledge hockey game between some of the world’s best players at MacLauchlan Arena on Saturday, Luke and Christine Smith were watching their son live out his dreams.
The Monkton Ont. couple are the proud parents of Corbyn Smith, a 19-year-old forward with Team Canada who first began playing the sport when he was about five.
“Ever since he first got on (the ice) it’s been his dream to be on Team Canada,” said Christine. “And here he is.”
“It’s unbelievable, it’s amazing,” added Luke, when asked what it felt like to see his son representing the country.
While the pair have witnessed their son’s years of hard work and training to reach the highest level of sledge hockey, they’ve also seen how the sport itself has grown in recent years.
“We’ve noticed a big change,” said Christine. “There is a lot more publicity, people are a lot more aware of it now.”
There may have been some young Islanders watching the gold cup game between Canada and the USA in this year’s World Sledge Hockey Challenge (WSHC) with their own hopes of someday playing for Team Canada.
In fact, the tournament itself may indirectly result in that through more ways than one.
A legacy fund from last year’s WSHC has helped fund a new sledge hockey pilot program that will launch this January in P.E.I., said WSHC co-chair and executive director of ParaSport and Recreation P.E.I., Tracy Stevenson.
The fund allowed for the purchase of five sledge hockey sleds, and coaches’ training, that will be available to young athletes with a disability.
“And if (the pilot) is successful, it’s definitely something we want to expand on in the fall of 2018,” said Stevenson, adding a number of physical education teachers in P.E.I. also want to add the sport to their curriculum. “There’s definitely an increased awareness of the sport of sledge hockey on P.E.I., which is awesome.”
During Saturday’s gold medal game, which saw the USA down Canada 3-2, five P.E.I. CanSkate coaches were being trained by Stacey Charlton, of Sussex N.B., in preparation of the pilot program.
Charlton, a coach who helped grow sledge hockey in N.B., said the sport offers a number of benefits to athletes with disabilities.
“It’s such a good program to have in communities due to the fact that it improves their quality of life. I’ve had people who had no muscle mass and they’ve developed muscle mass and core strength,” said Charlton, adding that the sport also helps develop hand-eye coordination. “It improves everything in their quality of life. The program is awesome.”
While sledge hockey programs have also been adopted in other provinces such as Alberta and Ontario, Charlton said P.E.I. was the first province to seek coaches’ training.
“They’re the first ones who’ve said ‘hey can you come and train our coaches?’ P.E.I. is a trailblazer,” she said.
This year was the fourth time overall and second straight year P.E.I. has hosted the WSHC.
Stevenson said hosting the international event has helped grow interest among Islanders, as well as the community outreach performed by members of Team Canada prior to the tournament.
While on P.E.I., players visited four schools, Donagh Regional, Mount Stewart Consolidated, Spring Park Elementary and Stonepark Intermediate, to chat with students and give demonstrations of the sport. They also participated in a tree lighting ceremony at The Mount Continuing Care Community.
Schools were also offered free tickets to the games, with the offer seeing “more requests than we could take in,” said Stevenson.
Several games throughout the week saw attendance of more than 900, while a semi-final between Team Canada and Team Korea Thursday night was sold out.
Donagh Regional teacher Ashley Praught was one of many in the attendance for Saturday’s gold medal game, which was also a near sell-out.
Praught noted the school had brought almost 170 students to one of the game’s earlier in the week after meeting players with Team Canada.
She said while many students were initially unfamiliar with the sport, “they loved it.”
“They had a blast… it was completely new to them,” said Praught, noting that some students decided to go to more games with their parents throughout the week. “They weren’t exposed to it before but having the athletes come to our school was pretty special and to see it in action later this week was awesome.”
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