Athletics has always been a part of my life. I was on the basketball team and ran the high and low hurdles in track while in high school in northwest Indiana, but I had my greatest success in bowling.
I grew up in the Saturday morning youth leagues and regularly competed in, and occasionally won, individual and Father/Son tournaments. I then bowled intercollegiately at Indiana University. After graduating from IU in 1986, I bowled in multiple adult leagues per week in and around Indianapolis, and for five years worked at Indianapolis bowling centers as Youth League Director and Instructor for youth and adults.
But in 1993, I started feeling the effects of what I later learned to be Multiple Sclerosis. When my season average fell from 200 to the mid-120s, I “retired” from the sport of bowling.
I grew up in the Saturday morning youth leagues and regularly competed in, and occasionally won, individual and Father/Son tournaments. I then bowled intercollegiately at Indiana University. After graduating from IU in 1986, I bowled in multiple adult leagues per week in and around Indianapolis, and for five years worked at Indianapolis bowling centers as Youth League Director and Instructor for youth and adults.
But in 1993, I started feeling the effects of what I later learned to be Multiple Sclerosis. When my season average fell from 200 to the mid-120s, I “retired” from the sport of bowling.
In 2005, I moved to Prescott Valley, AZ to be one of the editors of the Prescott Daily Courier. From 2006 to 2013, Prescott Valley was the home of the CHL’s Arizona Sundogs, and Amy and I were regular spectators.
At a Sundogs game on New Year’s Eve in 2011, I met Prescott’s Tom Lopeman, who plays for the Arizona Coyotes Sled Hockey team in Phoenix. Tom lost both of his legs to injuries he received while serving in Vietnam. After a short video presentation, Tom skated out to center ice, delivered the game puck to the referee and skated past both benches before skating off.
At the end of the first period, I quickly drove my mobility scooter to the lobby where I met Tom and his wife Sharon, got a good look at Tom’s equipment and learned about sled hockey, a sport that up until that moment I didn’t know existed.
A couple of weeks later, at Tom’s invitation, I attended a Coyote sled team practice at the Ice Den in Scottsdale. Tom and his teammates got me on a sled, loaned me a couple of sticks and put me on the ice. While the Coyotes practiced on half the rink, I pushed a puck around and skated back and forth along the width of the other half. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life, especially since I hadn’t done anything that physical for approximately 12 years prior to that day. My arms were so sore, I thought they were going to fall off my shoulders, but I loved every second of it, especially the comradery of Tom and the other Coyotes that I missed since my bowling days. I had to be able to do this sport!
I joined a gym in Prescott Valley and followed a strict weightlifting regimen to strengthen my arms and upper body. I’m able to walk short distances with the aid of a walker, but other than that, my legs are basically useless. I also have feeling and strength problems in my left hand, so weight training and physical therapy help me maintain modest ability there.
At a Sundogs game on New Year’s Eve in 2011, I met Prescott’s Tom Lopeman, who plays for the Arizona Coyotes Sled Hockey team in Phoenix. Tom lost both of his legs to injuries he received while serving in Vietnam. After a short video presentation, Tom skated out to center ice, delivered the game puck to the referee and skated past both benches before skating off.
At the end of the first period, I quickly drove my mobility scooter to the lobby where I met Tom and his wife Sharon, got a good look at Tom’s equipment and learned about sled hockey, a sport that up until that moment I didn’t know existed.
A couple of weeks later, at Tom’s invitation, I attended a Coyote sled team practice at the Ice Den in Scottsdale. Tom and his teammates got me on a sled, loaned me a couple of sticks and put me on the ice. While the Coyotes practiced on half the rink, I pushed a puck around and skated back and forth along the width of the other half. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life, especially since I hadn’t done anything that physical for approximately 12 years prior to that day. My arms were so sore, I thought they were going to fall off my shoulders, but I loved every second of it, especially the comradery of Tom and the other Coyotes that I missed since my bowling days. I had to be able to do this sport!
I joined a gym in Prescott Valley and followed a strict weightlifting regimen to strengthen my arms and upper body. I’m able to walk short distances with the aid of a walker, but other than that, my legs are basically useless. I also have feeling and strength problems in my left hand, so weight training and physical therapy help me maintain modest ability there.
This phase of my life has been a series of what I’ve heard called “God Winks.” I don’t know if it’s divine intervention or just coincidence, but various events have encouraged me to continue to learn and play sled hockey. A couple of months after my first time on the ice, I met a man in Flagstaff who was selling all of his personal hockey gear – helmet, gloves, pads, stick and bag – everything but his skates, which I didn’t need anyway. That summer, I learned Daring Adventures would hold weekly Try Out Sled Hockey events at the Ice Den, so I quickly signed up. Thanks to Daring Adventures, I was able to borrow a sled, put my personal gear to good use, and work on my basic sled hockey skills. I also got to reconnect with Tom and most of the Coyotes I met four months before. The captain for the Coyotes Sled team, Paul Crane, told me about the grant program of the Challenged Athletes Foundation. With reference letters from Tom and Lynette Hoyt of the Arizona chapter of the Multiple Sclerosis Society, I was approved for a grant for a handcycle so I can improve my conditioning for sled hockey. In April of 2015, I got a handcycle through Prescott Valley Bike Works, whose owner, Marc Hanses, is good friends with Tom and Sharon Lopeman’s son, Keith. It’s pretty amazing how everything ties together!
Thanks to Daring Adventures and the Coyotes Sled team, I’ve been able to try out various sleds and note what features, like the amount of back support, I need for when I’ll be able to afford a sled of my own. I understand that thanks to the Arizona Coyotes Foundation, Daring Adventures was able to get new sleds this year. One of the new sleds has really high back support, which has been a big help to me.
Thanks to Daring Adventures and the Coyotes Sled team, I’ve been able to try out various sleds and note what features, like the amount of back support, I need for when I’ll be able to afford a sled of my own. I understand that thanks to the Arizona Coyotes Foundation, Daring Adventures was able to get new sleds this year. One of the new sleds has really high back support, which has been a big help to me.
Even more gratifying is I’ve been able to get my son, Nik, involved in sled hockey. Nik is now 15 and lives most of the year with his mother in Indiana. He comes to Arizona at Christmas, during his school’s Spring Break and for seven weeks during the summer. I took Nik to one of the Daring Adventures Sled Hockey days so he could help me get into and out of a sled, see me do this sport, and try it out himself. He has fallen in love with the sport of sled hockey and he’s really good at it. Tom Lopeman and Paul Crane have told me that Nik is good and they want him to be part of the team, even though he is not disabled. I am in the process of getting Nik his own personal gear. And he enjoys telling his friends back home that he plays sled hockey … during the summer … in Arizona.
Not only am I happy that Nik and I do something together that we both love, but I’m also very proud that he helps other players get in and out of sleds and on and off the ice. He is always the last person to get on the ice and the first person off on the summer sled hockey days, not because I told him to help others, but because he wants to. Whenever I see one of the Coyotes or the Daring Adventures staff and helpers, they say “Where’s Nik?” “How is Nik doing?” “Tell him I said ‘Hi.’” Yes, I am one proud papa.
I have a long way to go before I can really play sled hockey with the Coyotes Sled team, but I’m trying and they encourage me and help me. I was thankful that they asked me to help them prepare for the Sled Hockey Classic tournament in Florida in November, and thanks to Daring Adventures, I was able to borrow the high-back hockey sled to do so.
My goal is to be a contributing member of the Coyotes Sled Hockey team someday. And what better place to have a goal than a hockey rink where there is one at each end.
Not only am I happy that Nik and I do something together that we both love, but I’m also very proud that he helps other players get in and out of sleds and on and off the ice. He is always the last person to get on the ice and the first person off on the summer sled hockey days, not because I told him to help others, but because he wants to. Whenever I see one of the Coyotes or the Daring Adventures staff and helpers, they say “Where’s Nik?” “How is Nik doing?” “Tell him I said ‘Hi.’” Yes, I am one proud papa.
I have a long way to go before I can really play sled hockey with the Coyotes Sled team, but I’m trying and they encourage me and help me. I was thankful that they asked me to help them prepare for the Sled Hockey Classic tournament in Florida in November, and thanks to Daring Adventures, I was able to borrow the high-back hockey sled to do so.
My goal is to be a contributing member of the Coyotes Sled Hockey team someday. And what better place to have a goal than a hockey rink where there is one at each end.
