Goal Is to Spur Interest in Sled Hockey

Athletes in wheelchairs are now a common sight at 10-K runs and even marathons. Dave Conklin hopes to add hockey to the sports in which the physically disabled can compete.

Conklin, captain of the U.S. Sled Hockey Team, was in Anaheim on Wednesday to lead a clinic for wheelchair athletes and other participants in the city’s therapeutic recreation program and to generate interest in a sled hockey program for children and adults.

Conklin, 41, explained that a hockey sled is built of steel alloy pipes with regular skating blades attached beneath the seat. The players, who are strapped in at the waist and ankles, use short sticks to pull themselves across the ice and to shoot hockey pucks.

The sport originated nearly three decades ago in Sweden, Conklin said, and has since caught on in other European countries, Canada, Japan and the central and eastern United States.

Now it’s California’s turn, he said. “Our target is to reach large numbers of people who are physically challenged and teach them how to skate and achieve competitiveness,” Conklin said, with the athlete’s ultimate goal being to qualify for the national team.

Compared with teams in the rest of the world, the U.S. Sled Hockey squad is “somewhere in the middle,” Conklin said. “That’s why we need California’s help.”

The sport affords numerous psychological and physical benefits, said Conklin, who was paralyzed from the waist down in a 1981 motorcycle accident.

“It’s great cross-training,” he said. “You pull instead of push, so it totally complements being in a wheelchair.”

Sled hockey competition is open to both able-bodied and disabled people, to men and women, and to all ages, from youngsters to senior citizens, Conklin said.

Though sled hockey is typically a full-contact sport, injuries are rare, he said. Also, fighting is not allowed, and profanity is discouraged. “In six years, I’ve never seen anybody get rowdy,” he said. “We’re amateurs. We do this because we love it.”

Among the participants in the sled hockey clinic was Joe Tusia, 29, a Boston native now living in Belmont Shore. A former professional hockey player in Italy, Tusia was paralyzed in 1994 by gunshots fired during a robbery.

To be in a skating rink again, he said, is “an indescribable feeling.”

“I enjoy just getting out on the ice,” said Tusia, who is being encouraged by Conklin to try out for the national team. “Every once in a while, it feels like I’m skating again.”

Disney GOALS (Growth Opportunities through Athletics, Learning and Service), a not-for-profit organization that offers recreational activities, hopes to organize a sled hockey program for children and adults, with league play beginning this fall, said Dave Wilk, the group’s executive director.

A rink and sled hockey equipment would be available to organized groups for no charge, Wilk said. Information: (714) 535-7465.