Canadian Blind Hockey held its third annual Summer Development camp Monday at Burnaby 8 Rinks, with players coming from across the country to lace up the blades.
Presented by Accessible Media Inc. and the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, the camp included male and females ages 15 and up, and members from teams based in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton and New Westminster-based Vancouver.
The program offers a chance for youth and adults who are blind or partially sighted to take part in an evaluation-style camp, complete with skills competition.
Those in attendance included members of the Montreal Hiboux, Toronto Ice Owls, Calgary Seeing Ice Dogs, Edmonton See-Hawks and the local Vancouver Eclipse, as well as individual free-agent players not connected to any teams. After five days of intensive training under an experienced coaching staff, the players had an opportunity to showcase what they had learned over the week.
Blind Hockey is now rapidly growing across the United States, with additional interest in many hockey loving nations across the world. With international competition possibilities on the horizon, the summer camp is now a crucial development opportunity to prepare and scout out the Canadian blind hockey stars of today, as well as to develop the next generation of stars to represent Canada tomorrow.
The sport of blind hockey is one of the fastest growing parasports in Canada, and is played by athletes who are legally blind using slightly modified rules to make the game accessible. The biggest modification is the puck, which makes noise and is both bigger and slower than a traditional puck.
