The marquee event for participation at the 2012 Special Olympics Canada Winter Games is floor hockey.
The most popular sport at the Games will be played by 256 males and females of all ages from 10 provinces.
“It’s along the same lines as regular hockey for the athletes and they just love it,” said Dave Adams, head coach of the 2011 provincial D champion Strathcona Thunder.
Floor hockey at the Games consists of three 12-minute periods, with a one-minute intermission between each period. Teams play with five runners and one goalie on the floor.
“The athletes like the competitiveness of the sport playing against other teams. It’s also a good exercise sport for them,” Adams said.
Every game is a social outing for the athletes.
“Because of the amount of people on the teams they make a lot of new friends,” Adams said. “They also get to do a little bit of travelling too. They love it when we go away for tournaments.”
The Thunder and the Red Deer Rockets, last year’s B division provincial champs, are shooting for medals at the Games.
But the first goal for all 32 players is to have fun.
“They just love coming out and playing and I like to see that. They’re always so excited, even for practices,” Adams said.
The floor hockey venue at the Games is Servus Credit Union Place. The preliminary round to determine the teams in the A, B, C and D divisions is Feb. 29. The finals are March 3. The winners qualify for the 2013 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
“Hopefully we can win a medal and hopefully it’s gold and then we’ll be in the running for the international Games,” Adams said. “Gold would be great but if they win any medal I would be really happy. There are a lot of really good teams out there from the other provinces that we’ll be playing and it’s going to be a real tough go.”
The Thunder beat out St. Albert, Edmonton and Calgary for provincial honours and the Sherwood Park-based team was selected to represent Alberta at the seventh annual national winter festival for athletes with an intellectual disability.
“It was very huge. The athletes were just so ecstatic to win gold and very excited about the thought of possibly being one of the teams to be picked to go to the Games,” Adams said. “Right now my team is on a real high, especially because we’re getting so close to the Games. The athletes are very excited in our practices and they’re working real hard.”
The Thunder train every Thursday night for two hours at Bev Facey High School.
“We haven’t stopped practicing since provincials last year [in February],” Adams said. “A lot of people that watched us at provincials have see a huge difference in the way my team plays now compared to the way we did at provincials.”
The game plan for the Thunder is to strike quickly on offence.
“My defence is a little weaker than I would like but my offence is fairly good,” Adams said. “A lot of times once they get a goal or two under their belts they really get fired up knowing that they can do it and they just keep working hard at it.”
Adams, 56, joined the Special Olympics movement as a volunteer 12 years ago after moving from Medicine Hat to Antler Lake.
“My oldest son, Jeff, has Down Syndrome and he wanted to play floor hockey. He like it and is on the team I coach,” Adams said. “They’re always looking for people to volunteer so that’s how I got into coaching. It’s really gratifying. I just love it.”
