Every Saturday afternoon during the hockey season, a special group of hockey players, coaches, and volunteers get together at Cataraqui Arena to practise their hockey skills.
The Kingston and Area Minor Hockey Association (KAMHA) Special Hockey program was founded in 2015 by Rob and Jayne Chapman, who have a hockey-loving son with special needs.
The Special Hockey group has approximately 20 members and a half dozen coaches and volunteers. Unlike minor hockey, this group has no age restriction. Members range in age from 12 years-old to 40 and they all play together. Participants come back every year and many have been around since the program’s inception.
The Chapmans later turned the program over to their son-in-law Adam Stroud, who had the help of dedicated volunteers like Doug Hyde. This fall, after 10 seasons, Stroud turned over the reins to Hyde.
Hyde and his wife Susan are both longtime volunteers. They continued to volunteer their time for minor hockey after their two boys aged out of the organization several years ago.
On the ice, players wear Kingston Canadians jerseys for practice and come and go to the arena and walk around Kingston wearing their official hockey jackets and hoodies, provided by local sponsors.
“I knew the players would never take them off all winter,” Hyde says. “I always thought it makes them feel like they’re just regular hockey players, Canadians you know, they’re given an opportunity to play.”
“It’s a sense of belonging for them to be on a team and they feel like they’re part of something,” Hyde said.
Scotiabank and other sponsors have also provided financial help in covering the cost of ice time and activities such as trips to Ottawa Senators and Kingston Frontenacs games.
There’s no shortage of volunteers who want to work with the team, including current players and coaches in the Kingston Area organization, Hyde says.
“We need people to tie skates and just to watch how things are going. If a player takes a fall or has a run-in with another player, you just want helpers on the ice like any other hockey team.”
"We are extremely proud of our Special Hockey program and we are very fortunate to have Doug Hyde take over the reins this past year," says association president Steve Walker.
Mike O’Brien, 31, has been a member of Special Hockey since the program’s inception.
“It’s fun, exciting – and it’s great for guys and girls to get the experience,” says “Big Mike,” the moniker he received at the Special Hockey program. “Doug is an amazing guy and I’ve learned lots of things from him. He knows a lot about hockey, the drills and stuff.”
Tim Smith, 32, has also been with the program since its early days.
“Doug, he’s a really good hockey coach. He makes me happy,” says Smith.
It gets people like us, with disabilities, out to get into the game we love,” says Shane Edwards, a 39-year-old first year player. “Doug’s a nice person.
Hyde says that volunteering with the program is an uplifting experience.
“I can’t speak for the players but we probably get as much out of this as they do.”
Being part of a team is something that many people with developmental issues never get to take part in, so the Special hockey fills that need for the players, Hyde says.
"It’s that sense of belonging, equality, and dignity, if you will. [The players get to say] ‘Hey, we’re Kingston Canadians, too.’"
