Blind ice hockey quickly gains a foothold in Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The campers stepped into the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry, firing questions. “Are we on the ice?” Counselor: “No, we’re not on the ice yet.” “Can we see the rinks?” No, they could not, because of these 58 young people, ages 5 to 18, half are completely or almost completely blind. The others have a range of vision impairments. As part of this week’s Envision Blind Sports camp, they were bused Wednesday from Slippery Rock to the Penguins Rinks to try blind hockey.

Yep — blind ice hockey. It’s a new thing, and Pittsburgh looks to be a driving force behind growing it, here and across North America and beyond.

Wendy Fagan, an assistant professor in Slippery Rock University’s Adapted Physical Activity Program who has been running blind sports camps for more than a decade, first tried ice hockey here last summer. It was a big hit, and led to the creation of the Pittsburgh Penguins Blind Hockey team that recently finished its first season.

It’s one of just four teams in the U.S., but they hope to change that, now that they have the support of the new nonprofit for local special teams, Hockey Sticks Together, which in turn is supported by the Pittsburgh Penguins Foundation. HST’s executive director, Michele Humphreys, recently talked about the program at the Annual Congress of USA Hockey in Colorado Springs, Colo., and that governing

Bob Batz Jr./Post-Gazette Counselor Jessica Duncan makes a snow angel Wednesday with Danika Johns, 6, of Apollo. They were participating in a hockey camp run by Envision Blind Sports and Pittsburgh Penguins Blind Hockey at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry.