Regina Pats help teach blind kids the sport of hockey

Imagine lacing up your skates and hitting the ice with your hockey heroes. For a group of blind and partially sighted kids in Regina that dream came true today.

It’s been made possible by a partnership between Canadian Blind Hockey and the Regina Pats.

For nine-year-old Fletcher Bryant who is partially blind, Wednesday was a chance to hang out with his favourite team, while getting some help on the ice. Bryant first got into hockey after his sister joined a league.

“I just want to skate around with them, maybe play a little like scrimmage,” Bryant said. “I started skating when I was around six or seven years old, then I got used to the stick and shooting the puck around.”

Throughout the session with the Pats, he was talking with forward Zack Shantz about hockey and his favourite player Connor Bedard.

“It’s awesome to get out here and see the smiles on kids’ faces and try and make their day,” Shantz said while leaning over the boards. “Fletcher is awesome. Such a great kid. He doesn’t stop smiling when we are skating around.”

Canadian Blind Hockey executive director Matt Morrow said the day’s events are part of their annual try blind hockey program.

“We partner with the local school board, district vision programs and all the kids that are blind or partially sighted in the community are invited to come to the rink for a full day of activities,” Morrow said. “They get to go on a tour of an arena, learn about the sport of ice hockey, and then of course the highlight of the day is they get to try skating and blind hockey. And in today’s case, they’re fortunate to have guest players from the Regina Pats.”

In the sport of blind hockey, players all have 10 per cent of their vision or less. The puck is also adapted to be bigger and slower, and it makes noise.

“Hockey is such an important part of Canadian culture and if you’re blind or partially sighted and you don’t have the opportunity to see it on TV or see it at the arena, you may not learn the ins and outs of the game,” Morrow said. “Having this field trip program, even if this is the only time the child interacts with hockey in their life, when they get older and people are talking about hockey, they’ll have a much better sense of what’s going on.”

He said it can be challenging to have kids learn the sport, but it is an amazing feeling when things click, and having the Pats there made the job that much more special.

“To get that one-on-one interaction and to be able to go to school tomorrow and say that not only did you try skating and hockey, but you actually tried it with the Regina Pats, I think is just huge for awareness of the capabilities of people that are blind or partially sighted and the sport of blind hockey.”