Bulldogs hosting good ol’ quiet hockey game

For the rest of us it will be strange.

Because the Nov. 10 Antigonish Bulldogs game will be quiet.

But for about 16 per cent of the population it will be a welcoming environment.

“They’re people like us who want to do things just like us,” said Mary-Beth Corsten.

“They” are people with sensory processing disorder — people who get overwhelmed in environments with bright lights or loud noises.

So Corsten and her Health and Human Services 12 Class at John Hugh Gillis Regional High School in Antigonish have organized a “quiet game” for Friday, Nov. 10. The Antigonish Bulldogs Jr. B game against the Sackville Blazers will have black bristol board signs fans can hold up instead of cheering, no music, a national anthem performed by a sign language interpreter, and no alarms or lights for the goals.

There will also be two “safe” rooms from which fans can watch the game.

It’ll be just hockey.

“Sensory processing disorder is often referred to as a neurological traffic jam,” said Amanda Casey, a professor of human kinetics at St. Francis Xavier University, whose work focuses on disability and health.

Casey presented to the Grade 12 class on the disorder, which is common amongst people with autism and attention deficit disorder but can also occur in people with post-traumatic stress disorder or no other existing conditions. About 16 per cent of the population live with it in one form or another.

People with sensory processing disorder experience their senses — and it can be any of the senses — differently and often more intensely than the rest of us.

For Corston’s peers, the idea came from the time they spend with the school’s community living class — a group with various intellectual and physical disabilities.

“It changed me,” said Scott MacInnis of working with the group and the impetus to create a quiet game.

“I don’t call it volunteer work; I call it being a decent human being.”