Teen brings hockey to those of all abilities
WESTPORT — Sports can get competitive, but for Zoe Simonte, a senior at Staples High School, she’s bringing hockey to people of all skill levels and abilities.
During her sophomore year, she created a modified and safe floor hockey program called Hearts4Hockey for teenagers and adults with disabilities who attend Healing Hearts, which is a non-profit organization in Stamford.
Every Friday, Healing Hearts hosts a Friday Night Club Night program. About once a month Simonte takes the time to host the Hearts4Hockey program.
“I love to help people,” Simonte said about her program.
“The kids, everybody gravitates towards her,” Kim Colletto, executive director of Healing Hearts said. “She’s an amazing young lady. She makes it fun and engaging. It’s a very social sport.”
Colletto said they have anywhere from 15 to 30 participants for Hearts4Hockey.
Simonte originally started volunteering at Healing Hearts earlier in high school, eventually coming up with the idea to start the hockey program as a sophomore.
She said the day before field hockey tryouts going into her junior year, she got injured, keeping her out the entire season.
That’s when she said she really became motivated to merge her passion with community service.
Simonte said she knew actual field hockey wouldn’t be practical to play because of the hard balls and sticks. She managed to find soft balls and sticks online, which fits the needs of the players. To afford the equipment, she started a GoFundMe.
She said it started with simple passing drills. As the players got more comfortable, the transitioned to games.
Now, she even gets her friends and family to volunteer with her program.
Healing Hearts’ mission statement says it “provides social and recreational programs for children, teens, and young adults with special needs to foster friendships, promote fitness, and support independence for teens and young adults.”
Colletto said Simonte’s program ties into the mission statement with fitness and peer interaction.
“The way she interacts with our kids and just runs this program for sports and for fitness, I can’t say anything more wonderful,” Colletto said.
Colletto added that Simonte has a lot of talent and heart.
Simonte said she decided not to try out for the Staples field hockey team her senior year because of the competitiveness. She said she was sad when she wasn’t playing, but managed to turn it into something bigger with her program.
“I really just liked to take what I learned on the field,” Simonte said about applying it to Hearts4Hockey. “I never really was just doing it to score goals. I really liked the lessons that I learned on the field.”
Those lessons include gaining confidence and trying new things, which she implements in her program.
“It’s really cool to see, every time I go back, they’re more confident or they want to try a new position,” she said.
Simonte said she also likes bringing a part of herself to Healing Hearts through hockey.
Outside of the Hearts4Hockey program, she volunteers with the Westport PAL program and manages the high school cross country team, in which her twin sister is captain.
“I think all of these experiences have made me more confident in who I am, and give me a little bit more of an idea of what I might want to do in the future — keep working with people, for sure,” she said.
“Feeling comfortable trying new things and it’s okay to not get something at first,” are some lessons she’s brought to her program.
With Hearts4Hockey, she said she believes her job is done if she walks out and the participants feel like they can do something and empower others.
“Having a disability or having what might be thought of as a weakness isn’t really a weakness,” Simonte said.
Simonte said Hearts4Hockey has taught her to embrace differences and learn from people who are different than she is.
She said Westport isn’t very diverse and some at Staples High School are very competitive and wrapped up in academics and sports.
“I can completely let loose and just embrace everyone’s differences,” she said. “I think that’s not something you can find a lot, just with the sports culture.”
Simonte said the competitiveness was something she didn’t like about high school field hockey, but learned she could use her passion in a different way, by hosting this program.
Growing up, Simonte said she wasn’t someone to take on a leadership role. She said she became more confident in leadership after starting Hearts4Hockey.
“I like to feel like I can really make an impact on these kids’ days or weeks,” Simonte said. “I’m someone they can look up to, rather than someone who’s just helping out every week.”
Simonte said one of the things she really likes about Healing Hearts is that all of the participants have a mutual friendship, regardless of age.
In the future, Simonte said she hopes to continue empowering and helping others while making them feel valued and equal.
Simonte said she doesn’t know exactly what she wants to study in college, probably psychology or sociology, but she hopes to go to a smaller school for its sense of community.
“I want to feel seen and known, and I like the idea of somewhere where I can actually make a difference,” Simonte said.
She also said she would like to keep working with people who have disabilities, too.
As a child, one of her best friends was a boy who had a disability. She said people from the school would call her parents to tell them how nice she was to him.
“I think it’s all coming together now that I’m older,” she said. “My parents are like, ‘You’ve always loved helping people,’ which is just who I am.”
“I like to feel like I can really make an impact on these kids’ days or weeks. I’m someone they can look up to, rather than someone who’s just helping out every week.”
Zoe Simonte