More News

Laurel resident Carolyn Howell said she and her son Brian had tried just about every sport before they found the Washington Ice Dogs — a hockey team for developmentally disabled youth and adults that practices at the Gardens Ice House in Laurel.

Brian, 15, suffers from seizures and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Hockey fit well for Brian, she said, because it is fast-paced and takes place in a cooler environment than other sports like basketball. He has been playing with the Ice Dogs for the past nine years.

"There's been nothing better that happened to Brian," she said.

Youth and adults travel from as far away as Southern Maryland to participate with the Ice Dogs, a program currently in its 10th season. Parents say they and their children keep coming back to the team because of the way it makes them feel included and part of something beyond a disability.

Last weekend, the Ice Dogs hosted between 800 and 1,000 players at the sixth annual Disabled Hockey Festival. The festival is the largest U.S. disabled hockey event, said Clai Carr, the owner of Gardens Ice House.

Between games, players socialized with one another and posed for photos in front of the Stanley Cup, the National Hockey League trophy, which was on display near one of the main ice rinks.

Even though this was the rink's first time hosting the national competition, Gardens Ice House has a long connection with disabled hockey. When Carr, a Baltimore County resident, opened Gardens Ice House in 1995, he immediately began planning a disabled hockey league so that his son, Tyler, who has Down syndrome, could play.

"I had a dog in the fight, if you will," he said.

Carr said he wanted to give Tyler the chance to take part in the sport that he and his two other sons enjoyed so much. Tyler, now 28, still competes for the Ice Dogs wearing jersey No. 9 — the same number his father and brothers have worn.

Since the rink opened, the Ice Dogs have grown to include 38 players on three different teams. The players, who range in age from 4 to 40, have all been diagnosed with a developmental disability but are fully able to compete on the ice.

Crofton resident Mike Hickey, a coach for the Ice Dogs, said hockey is especially beneficial to players with autism because of the sensory nature. It can also be a struggle for autistic children to develop social skills, he said, and hockey helps because it forces them to interact with other players and learn to play as a team.

Hickey said the disabled hockey teams play without certain rules, such as offside, which many players and coaches believe is the purest form of the sport.

"It's just free and flowing and the way hockey was meant to be," he said.

The only other modification, Hickey said, is that disabled hockey leagues operate under "no-contact" rules, which makes the game less heated than the NHL version.

The "A" level Ice Dogs team — the most skilled of the program's three teams — competed in its second game of the tournament on Friday morning. The competition moved fast, with the team's three coaches switching the line-up every two minutes. The Ice Dogs, who held the lead for most of the game, won 5-2.

Brian Howell had a straightforward response when asked what he enjoys about the sport.

"Just the fun about it," he said. "Just being on the ice makes me feel free."

E-mail Caitlin Moran at cmoran@gazette.net.