Photo from James G Vail via London Blizzard Sledge Hockey Club (Facebook)
After nearly a decade and a half of volunteering, a London sledge hockey trainer is being celebrated for what he’s done for the sport.
London Blizzard trainer Ted Sinclair has been announced as a Spirit of Sport honouree by the London Sports Hall of Fame.
Sinclair wasn’t always the biggest sledge hockey expert.
That changed when his son Cam, who has epilepsy, started playing as a way to participate in Canada’s national sport.
“I found myself hanging around the bench more and more, and eventually I became a carded trainer,” Sinclair says. “That was 14 years ago, so it’s grown and grown.”
Sledge hockey offers children and adults with disabilities the opportunity to play hockey on sleds, using with two smaller blades rather than a longer stick.
As Sinclair describes it, the sport is more challenging — and physical — than some might think.
“If you notice with stand-up hockey, [when] the checks go into the boards, the top parts of the boards will move back and forth. The bottom parts don’t — that’s where the support of those walls are,” Sinclair says. “With our guys sitting in sleds, they’re down at that level where the boards don’t move.”
Sinclair will be honoured by the London Sports Hall of Fame on Thursday, November 6th.
