EEH & The Amercian Special Hockey Association

The American Special Hockey Association (ASHA) held its first week long camp August 1st-5th at The Gardens Ice House in Laurel, MD. The camp was a tremendous success with 20 players participating. The camp was instructed and run by European Elite Hockey along with Special Hockey coaches and staff.

The camp was a chance for Special Hockey Staff to learn more about combining a structured camp and adapting it for the Special Hockey Athlete, as well as provide a Staff of European Elite Hockey to adapt a camp for the Developmentally Disabled Athlete. Martine de la Torre of European Elite Hockey writes I would like to thank ASHA for the opportunity to get involved with the American Special Hockey Association. We had planned on our first hockey camp being a fun learning experience, not only was it that, it was truly and inspirational week.

Our goal was to have these kids experience an all encompassing hockey camp, with an emphasis on fine tuning their hockey skills. As you know the off ice conditioning along with a daily swim made the conditioning aspect pleasurable and fun. The off ice use of sticks and different size balls helped them get a different perspective on stick handling. All of these activities and the all day togetherness made for some amazing results on the ice as we saw.

Seeing all the positive results this one week had, we are very excited about starting this kind of program in the South Florida area and then taking it on the road as an offshoot of the European Elite Hockey camps.Mike Hickey, President of ASHA also stated that the camp which was done on a trial run was an outstanding success and will provide the ability for ASHA to raise awareness of Special Hockey Programs and expand new programs to all districts within USA Hockey. The week long camp in Maryland followed a very successful weekend camp held in New Jersey hosted by ASHA, USA Hockey and the New Jersey Devils Youth Hockey, the weekend prior. It is very important that we expand these camps throughout the country and work to provide more opportunities for growth of all Disabled Hockey programs. ASHA plans on holding camps in each of the USA Hockey Districts in the coming year. Some camps are planned to combine Special and Sled Hockey programs together.

Anyone with questions on Special Hockey camps can email Mike Hickey at mhickey@specialhockey.org