Sledge hockey program in Arnprior, Ont. proving high demand for accessible sports

Just a few weeks into Arnprior's inaugural sledge hockey program, the new league is already over capacity.

This winter, the town received a grant of nearly $18,000 to launch the program, making it the only sledge hockey program in the Ottawa Valley.

"[The grant] covered the entire cost of purchasing the sleds, the player equipment, the jerseys, and helped us get some of the staff and training costs in to have this program go," said Lucas Power, the program and events coordinator with the town of Arnprior.

"So we provided all the equipment, similar to that of playing hockey, but it was all provided by the grant."

Four weeks into the program, players had claimed all 16 sleds the town had purchased, and a 17th player brought their own sled.

One of those players who had been in search of accessible sporting opportunities was 12-year-old Leland Brubacher.

"I like sledge hockey because you don't need to skate," he said. "All you have to do is use your arms, and I can't really skate."

Brubacher was diagnosed with osteofibrous dysplasia. He has weakened leg bones, wears braces, and has had rods inserted into his legs, according to his mother, Cindy Brubacher.

"That is the only sport really that he is able to excel in," Brubacher says of her son while watching him fly around the rink at Arnprior's Nick Smith Centre.

"So this is something he's going to be able to do into adulthood. So it's got unlimited opportunity for him."

Previously, a sledge hockey league was running in Barry's Bay before the pandemic shut it down. Since recreational sport has picked back up, the only option available to sledge hockey players was in Ottawa.

"We saw a need for it out here in Arnprior, people were making quite the hike to go play," said Ryan Harris, who has two sons in the program and is one of the coaches.

"Obviously, trying to teach a group of people how to do a sport when you're not down there doing it with them can be tough," he adds, being able-bodied, "but it's a lot of fun."

Assisting with the coaching duties is Rebecca Sharp, who has vast experience after playing on the Canadian women's sledge hockey team.

"I think it's really cool to see in a small community everyone gathering together to make a sport like this happen, and make it happen for kids in the area that really need it," Sharp tells CTV News.

"I think a lot more cities and local rinks need it in their areas. I know when I started the sport it wasn't readily available."

Arnprior's sledge hockey program only runs once a week, but the on-ice attendance at each practice is proving that accessible sport is needed in every corner of Canada.

"We knew for sure that this was a program that would fly in our town," said Power. "There is really limited accessible recreation and we're really working to improve that."

In the Arnprior sledge hockey program, able-bodied participants are allowed to register and play with impaired or disabled players.

At the elite level of the sport such as the Paralympics, Hockey Canada says on their website, "athletes must have an impairment of permanent nature in the lower part of the body of such a degree that it is obvious and easily recognizable and makes ordinary skating – and consequently playing stand-up hockey – impossible."