By David, father to ten-year-old Hamish
Hamish scores at the coolest game on earth!
Shortly after his birth in January 1997, we quickly became concerned that Hamish was not hearing very well. His older sister, Fenella, had always been a very noisy baby and Hamish was quite the reverse.
After a number of misdiagnoses over the next couple of years, Hamish was eventually diagnosed as profoundly deaf due to Connexin 26 Syndrome. The specialist informed us that without mechanical help it was unlikely he would learn to speak in the future, but that he was a possible candidate for a cochlear implant. We decided to go for it and he was implanted at Great Ormond Street Hospital in March 1999 and tuned in a few weeks later.
Now Hamish speaks very clearly, boards at the Mary Hare School for the Deaf during the week and spends his weekends playing for the Streatham Ice Hockey under 10s and under 12s teams. He also plays for The Werewolves, the UK’s only special needs Ice Hockey team.
Being the UK’s only special needs team, The Werewolves don’t get many opportunities to compete in England, but they have just recently returned from the 13th annual tournament in Washington D.C. Hamish - the only cochlear implanted child - was in put in charge of one line and scored the equaliser in the first match against a very tough team.
When Hamish was three, his sister Fenella started ice skating and the whole family began to spend a good part of each Saturday at lessons and the open session at Streatham Ice Rink. We started to take Hamish along when he was six, he did some basic lessons but wasn’t interested in the fancy stuff Fenella favoured. He said he wanted to skate fast, and he wanted boots like ‘that boy’s’ - pointing to a very fast teenage skater on hockey skates.
Hamish didn’t have any more skating lessons but he continued to go to the rink regularly. He began making friends there and, once he’d seen a film called ‘The Mighty Ducks’, he was desperate to play Ice Hockey. I was concerned for his safety and particularly about the robustness of the implant in what I knew could be a tough sport.
At the rink I picked up a leaflet which detailed the teams playing at Streatham and included a contact name and number for a recently formed team for those with developmental delays or difficulties. On that same day I was approached by a woman who asked what the device on his head was, and whether he be interested in playing ice hockey. She was the mother of one of the younger coaches out talent spotting for new players for the Werewolves and asked if we could stay after the session to try out – too right, Missus!
Hamish was handed a helmet and a stick and shown a few basic stick handling moves, pronounced a natural and got fitted out with kit for the next session. That was just the start of it. After a few weeks training with Werewolves, coach Mike Dwyer arranged for Hamish to meet the under 10s coach and try out for that team. He was soon asked to join the under-10 squad and started Monday evening training with them.
The Monday training had to stop when Hamish became a weekly boarder at Mary Hare Primary School, and now most weekends from September to May are spent either travelling to matches or training with Werewolves. At this level the rules are non-deliberate contact (i.e. no deliberate body checking) so for now I don’t worry. We’ll see if Hamish is still keen to play when it gets a bit tougher. At the moment all Hamish needs to do is put clingfilm over his cochlear implant to keep the damp out while it is protected underneath his helmet.
The Werewolves
By Coach Mike Dwyer
The Werewolves of London is a special Ice Hockey programme for developmentally disabled players of all ages. It provides an opportunity for players with special needs to participate in the sport and experience the thrill and camaraderie that comes with belonging to an Ice Hockey team.
The Werewolves first hit the ice in November 2002 when I persuaded Streatham Youth Ice Hockey Club to provide some ice time to get the scheme going. One of my sons is autistic with severe communication difficulties; he started playing at the age of eight when we lived in Canada. He has also played for Streatham's under 19 team which goes to show that if you play for long enough you can play just as well, if not better, than those who play for the mainstream ice hockey clubs. The Werewolves still actively encourage and facilitate those players who are willing and able to play on a mainstream team, to try out for the Streatham squads.
I enjoy the challenge of making ice hockey available to people who might otherwise not get the opportunity to play the coolest game on earth! Learning to skate and play Ice Hockey enhances the players' gross motor skills, social skills, confidence and abilities - the Werewolves is a social club as much as a sports club. Parents tell me that their children have benefited hugely in terms of confidence and social skills outside the club, and they all look forward to the next session.
The attendance numbers have steadily grown and at the start of this year we formed our own club with a committee and so on. Current numbers are 28 skaters and we are looking to double that in the next couple of years.
Because we are the only special needs team in the UK we are actively encouraging other clubs to support their own special needs team. The main problem is getting ice-time at an appropriate time of day, so in that respect we are very lucky. Werewolves training is every second Saturday from 4.15 -6pm at Streatham Ice Arena.
We have just returned from the 13th annual tournament in Washington D.C. where we noticed a new determination in some of our newer players. It was a real joy to see skills and tactical exercises coming to fruition. Although all the players were keen to score, they were supportive in passing to our less experienced players and letting them take a shot at goal. The nature of the tournament is for all the players to have an enjoyable time, and when we were faced with a squad younger and less practiced than us, it was a pleasure to watch our players ‘assist’ the opposition in getting some goals too.
Hamish really enjoyed his trip to the States. He liked seeing the White House but, not surprisingly, his favourite part of the tournament was the ice skating, playing centre and scoring goals.
For more information about the Werewolves of London, click here
For more information about Special Ice Hockey, click here
