Workshop at UMaine helps Sled Hogs stay on the ice Local athletes with disabilities compete in sled hockey

ORONO – The 2006 Olympics in Italy may have ended, but another torch flared soon after to mark the March 10 start of the IX Paralympics in Stadio Olimpico in Torino. Among the competitions was Paralympic sled hockey, a growing sport for athletes with disabilities. In that spirit, a group of men and a woman have formed a local sled hockey team.

These local athletes are looking to expand their team, attract new competitors and bring greater public awareness of opportunities for people with disabilities. They have become Maine’s second sled hockey team and one of only a handful in New England.

For several months this winter, team members used the Department of Forest Resources’ Perkins Hall workshop at the University of Maine to build specially designed sleds.

With assistance from Ben Dresser, a welding instructor who oversees the Perkins Hall shop, members of the team have built seven lightweight hockey sleds with donated materials – steel, aluminum tubing, welding rods, modified kayak seats, padding and nylon strapping.

Members of the Bangor Area Sled Hogs include a former painter, roofer, electrician and EMT-firefighter. One lost a leg to cancer, one has cerebral palsy and others have spinal cord injuries. They use wheelchairs or canes. They say what they have lost physically they have gained in attitude and friendship as members of the Sled Hogs.

“We’ll take on anybody. We’ll play able-bodied people,” said John McPhail, formerly an EMT-firefighter from Old Town. “We’re golden now that we have our own sleds.”

With additional sleds borrowed from Alpha One in Bangor, a nonprofit independent living center for people with disabilities, they can take to the ice competitively for fundraisers and to raise public awareness about their sport.

“It’s great fun, it’s good exercise and it’s a good cause,” said Mike Noyes of Orrington, who was paralyzed from the waist down in a fall from a ladder. “You have to exercise to stay healthy. This way you can keep up your upper-body strength and keep mentally alert.”

The athletes have played weekly hockey games Thursday mornings at Sawyer Arena in Bangor for three years, with their season running October through March. Players use two short hockey sticks with picks on the bottom and a taped wooden blade at the top to propel themselves across the ice.

The game is fast and furious, with collisions, spills and enthusiasm. While most sled hockey players have disabilities, the rules say as many as four able-bodied players can join the team.

Sleds can cost up to $800 each, so the team solicited contributions from businesses in the area to build their own sleds. The players say athletics gives them confidence, better health and a sense of identity.

“One of the goals I set for myself was, I wasn’t going to become invisible,” said Gaelen Saucier of Bangor, an electrician who sustained a spinal cord injury when he fell from a ladder three years ago. The exercise lowers stress and cholesterol levels, and keeps weight and blood pressure in check, he said.

“For a lot of people with spinal cord injury, the most exercise they get is transporting themselves in and out of chairs,” Saucier said. “That really limits your horizons.”

Members of the team invite others with disabilities to join, and even challenge people without disabilities to try the sport.

“There are a lot of disabled people in the Bangor area who don’t know about this program,” said Ed Skeffington of Old Town, who serves as coach.

Among those donating materials for the sleds were Lane Systems Supply Inc. of Brewer, Collabric in Veazie, Bangor Canvas Supply, Advantage Gases and Tools of Bangor, and Old Town Canoe Factory Outlet.

Members of the team include McPhail, Skeffington and his son Keith of Bangor, Noyes, Saucier, Ron Cronkite of Kenduskeag, Seth Reardon of Orrington, Anthony Cummings of Bangor, Jamie Smith, a physical therapist from Eastern Maine Medical Center, and Avis Munson of Glenburn.

Teammate Wes Smith of Glenburn, an Alpha One employee, missed part of the season to become a member of the United States Paralympic curling team.

To obtain more information or to schedule an event with the Bangor Area Sled Hogs for next season, contact Keith Skeffington at 852-7893.