USA Hockey Disabled Festival starts Friday in Fraser and St. Clair Shores
By @MichaelCaples –
The 12th annual USA Hockey Disabled Festival begins Friday, and it’s taking place in Metro Detroit.
The Fraser Hockey Land and the St. Clair Shores Civic Arena will serve as hosts for the event, which runs from April 7 through April 10.
A record 90 teams and 1,139 players are expected to come through the two Michigan rinks to compete in all four disciplines of disabled hockey – deaf/hard of hearing, special hockey, sled hockey and standing/amputee hockey.
The Disabled Festival will feature youth and adult sled tournaments, special hockey games, a three-game series with two blind hockey teams and two warrior divisions for standing/amputee teams comprised of service members who have been injured or disabled while serving our country.
Also, the sixth Toyota-USA Hockey Sled Hockey National Championship will also take place during the Festival – it will include several members of the U.S. National Sled Hockey Team competing against one another for their respective clubs.
Last season’s Disabled Festival set a new benchmark with 71 teams and more than 1,000 players. Each year has seen an impressive increase in participant count since the Festival’s inception in 2005, which featured 24 teams and nearly 300 players.
For a full schedule of events, click here.
Stories on teams who will represent Michigan at the Festival: