Rockin Hockey: Event pairs high school players and special needs students for a day on the ice

PALMER — The Alaska high school hockey season wrapped in February. The dust has settled, the rivalries have been put on hold and hockey players from across the Valley gathered under one roof to help their peers with special needs get onto the ice and play hockey.

“Hockey’s fun for everybody and it’s a sport that should be enjoyed by everybody,” Palmer High School junior hockey playe, Zach Nelius said. “It’s cool, the smiles on their faces when they leave.”

Colony High School senior hockey player Bradley Amato grew up in the Valley. He was one of many high school hockey players who helped special needs students play hockey at the annual Rockin Hockey event at the MTA Events Center in Palmer. He said that he felt like this event was a fitting way to bring the schools and greater community together under a common cause.

“It’s one of those universal things. Everybody knows hockey and when people hear about hockey, everyone loves it,” Amato said.

Student-athletes from Colony, Palmer, Wasilla, Houston, Redington and Mat-Su Career and Technical high schools participated this year, offering their hockey players and other volunteers to help. Players pushed their peers across the ice in chairs in friendly matches. During these games, teams used beach balls instead of pucks.

Normally, when prep hockey teams meet under the same roof, it’s as competitive rivals. This was not one of those times. The point of these matches was not to outperform the opposing team. The focus was on fun and making sure everyone was having it.

“It’s one of the better ways to give back to the community, I believe. It’s a really good way for all of us hockey players to come together as one,” Amato said.

Amato has been playing hockey for 11 years. He said that he’s drawn to hockey’s “rowdy, rambunctious atmosphere.”

Amato said he’s enjoyed participating in this community and comradery driven event for the past four years.

“I also think to give back really means something to me. A lot of these kids are never gonna get this opportunity to play hockey so to see them out there, playing like that really brings a smile to my face,” Amato said.

Palmer High special education instructor Theresa Savel spearheaded this event several years ago but she said this event is a “huge undertaking” that is fueled by support from the community.

“It takes a lot of people to make this work,” Savel said.

Savel has been teaching special education for 32 years. She said that she wasn’t really involved in sports during those early years because she didn’t have any children yet. Once she had children that were on sports teams, particularly her sons who were heavy into hockey, she got more involved with school athletics.

“Sports became a huge part of my life and I realized how an integral part of the school they are,” Savel said.

Benefits like leadership skills, comradery, and friendships to Savel are “invaluable” and she said those things are commonly reaped by school athletes. She said there was plenty of that to see at this year’s event.

“When you connect these two groups of people together, it’s pretty impressive,” Savel said.

Mason Flowers was one of several students that received help from his peers on the ice. He said that he was happy that he scored a goal and he didn’t want the good times to end.

“I didn’t want to get off the ice. I wanted to keep going,” Flowers said.

PHS junior Steve Patrick also had fun at this year’s event. He said that it was his first time in the rink, having never skated before this. He said that he wants to do it again next year.

“I was excited we got to play this year. I was shocked that I never ice skated before. It was good,” Patrick said.

Jacob LeCheminant said that he scored three goals today and he was pretty proud of that. His mother Tami LeCheminant said that she was glad he had the chance to do so.

“It’s fun for him to get this opportunity to do more athletics and things that these kids don’t really get an opportunity to do. It’s also really good to see the hockey players come out and support these kids,” Tami said.

TJ O’Rourke, a Palmer goalie who helped the Moose win the ASAA Division II state title in February, is Savel’s teacher’s assistant in her fourth hour special education class.

“They like to do everything that we do… They don’t get to do things like this often. Like, we have this and there’s the floor hockey tournament that we do. So between the two, I think it’s pretty good for them to be able get out and see kids from other schools and compete in a way that they’re able to fully participate in it,” O’Rourke said.

O’Rourke is a junior and has been playing hockey for six years. He said that it’s important to have opportunities like this event to give students with special needs an outlet for friendly competition and for the sheer fun and novelty of it. He said that it helps the students in need and the hockey players alike.

“For some of them, after you’re help them, you’re gonna walk around school and they’re gonna recognize who you are and we’re your friend; which is pretty good for both us and them,” O’Rourke said.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reporter Jacob Mann at jacob.mann@frontiersman.com