By Eli Shupak
Next month, Steve Shelvey will board a plane at the Calgary International Airport. His destination will be Toronto, where he’ll compete in the Canadian Electric Wheelchair Hockey Championships.
The 27-year-old forward will lead his Calgary squad into town on Victoria Day weekend when the West will try to capture its first Allied Cup since joining the league in the 1991-92 season.
The addition of Calgary to the Canadian Electric Wheelchair Hockey Association was a big step forward for the league, being its first expansion out of Ontario since 1981. The league started with four teams playing exhibition games at Bloorview Children’s Hospital, Villa Hospital, and Sunny View School. It has grown to 17 teams playing in an organized league across the country.
Expansion is a hot item on the league’s agenda as they hope to have a new division starting up in Vancouver soon. The league plans to expand to Montreal and Ottawa before looking to the east coast.
Electric wheelchair hockey is played with a light, plastic ball and plastic sticks on a gym floor. Five players are on the floor at a time for each time. They play two 25-minute periods in a game with the clock running continuously, except during time-outs and a five-minute break between periods.
The floor hockey league is designed for those who have limited upper body strength and use an electric wheelchair.
There are 170 players in the league, both men and women, who range in age from seven to 45. Most of the players have either Muscular Dystrophy or Cerebral Palsy.
By no means does that stop them from being active participants.
“I like the fact that wheelchair hockey is a game anybody can play,” said Toronto vikings Coach Mike Wise, who’ll be behind the bench for the second year in a row leading the Ontario All-Stars at this year’s national championships.
Toronto Badger scoring sensation Mike Lavalle will be playing at this year’s national tournament, hoping to add one more trophy to his collection of close to 50. The 21-year-old paraplegic finished the regular season with 55 goals. This was the third straight season lavalle has reached the 50-goal plateau.
His first 50-goal year in 1992-93 marked the first time in league history that it had been done. His stick and 50th-goal ball were placed in the Hockey Hall of Fame with the championship trophy.
“Every year has been a challenge and it’s getting harder and harder all the time,” said Lavalle, a 10-year veteran of the league, who is a nine-time all-star and six-time scoring champion. “But I love the game of hockey and really get pumped up for it by working harder all the time.”
A team from Minnesota heard about the league through an organization called National Handicaps Sports in Washington and asked if they could compete for this year’s championship. However, the league turned them down saying it was a Canadian championship, but did invite them to the national tournament to play some exhibition games, which they will do while the tournament is on.
“I’m really looking forward to playing against the Canadian teams,” said Minnesota defenseman Craig McClellan, who was on the team that competed in an electric wheelchair hockey tournament in Germany two years ago. “It’ll be interesting to see the difference between our game and the Canadian style of play. Our game was quite different from the one that they play in Europe.”
While the Europeans play a different style of electric wheelchair hockey, their game does feature the rough and tumble play that we see in North America.
“It’s good to get out there and get rid of some of your frustrations,” said Shelvey, who has been confined to a wheelchair since the age of 13 as a result of Becker’s Muscular Dystrophy. “Hockey is a game where you can let go of some of that aggression that gets bottled up.”
On the whole, everyone is out to have a good time and play hockey.
“What I enjoy most about the league is its competitiveness and the friendships that I’ve made,” said Toronto Red Dogs goalie Richard Shearer, who will play for Ontario during the national championships at York University and Humber College.
Carmichael said the league is approaching Sport Canada for some funding to help cover the league’s costs, but is not optimistic. He said $50,000 would be an ideal amount to receive on an annual basis to cover the salary of an employee, travel costs and office space. Realistically he would like about $5,000 a year to begin with.
But apart from money, the league had its biggest boost two years ago in May, when it was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
“People know what the NHL and minor hockey are all about on the ice,” Carmichael said. “But very few people in Canada really understand or know what electric wheelchair hockey is all about. The fact that the Hockey Hall of Fame saw and understood what we did and then recognized us as an official (hockey) organization, legitimized our hockey league. It put us on the map.”
Leave a Reply