Icer makes Team USA for deaf tournament
DeLange relishes the chance to compete with friends
St. Clair Shores hockey player Stewart DeLange was selected to play for the USA Deaf National Hockey Team this April in the Jeff Sauer International Deaf Hockey Series in Buffalo, New York.
DeLange, 20, has played hockey since he was six years old, both with hearing teammates and with deaf and hard of hearing players like himself.
As much as he looks forward to representing the United States in an international tournament, DeLange is really excited about having so many longtime friends on the Team USA roster.
“I started attending the American Hearing Impaired Hockey Association camp in Chicago when I was eight,” said DeLange. “There I met a lot of the players that are currently on the USA Deaf Team.
“It has been my goal to get on to the team and play with my friends.”
The USA Deaf Hockey Team won gold at the 2019 Deaflympics in Italy.
“The Deaflympics were supposed to occur in March in Turkey, but due to the political landscape in the Middle East, USA and other countries chose not to go,” said AHIHA President Kevin Delaney “That was the impetus for hosting the Buffalo tournament in April.”
The tournament will be held April 11-14 at the Northtown Center at Amherst and will include men’s teams from Canada, Czech Republic, Finland and USA
as well as women’s teams from USA and Canada. The series is hosted by the AHIHA and the Stan Mikita Hockey School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
DeLange attended tryouts in Buffalo last August and was one of 20 players chosen for Team USA. He played for the St. Clair Shores Unified team when he was in high school, and is used to communicating through an interpreter with teammates and coaches who do not know American Sign Language. Having deaf teammates and coaches who all know ASL makes communication much more immediate.
“When playing on a hearing team, I had an interpreter so I could understand what the coaches and my teammates were saying during games,” DeLange said. “When I play on the
deaf team, a lot of the players also use sign language so it is easier to communicate with my teammates.”.
Because players are scattered across the country, they won’t have a chance to practice together as a team until shortly before the start of the tournament. DeLange expects his Team USA deaf hockey team will practice only two or three times before competition begins.
DeLange says events like the Jeff Sauer International Deaf Hockey Series bring awareness to deaf hockey and inspire young athletes to reach for the stars.
“I feel events like this show younger athletes that you can do anything you put your mind to,” DeLange said. “I’m really excited for the opportunity to represent the USA at this tournament and I feel honored to have been chosen.”