Special Olympians practice floor hockey ahead of Heartland Winter Games

Team purple dominated the first floor hockey game on Sunday, but Craig Lovelace on team orange made a clean drive across most of the floor, only to see the puck deftly intercepted by the other team’s goalie.

The result was 8 to zip for team purple in a practice match for Special Olympics Missouri. Three teams from Kansas City and St. Joseph were preparing for the Heartland Winter Games next month in Omaha. They will compete against teams from Nebraska and Kansas.

“We tried,” Tiffany Wright of team orange said afterward while resting on the bleachers in the gym at William Chrisman High School in Independence. Wright, 31, of Kansas City, has participated in Special Olympics since she was 8.

Still, everyone had a good time.

“They love it,” said Linda May, a Special Olympics Missouri coach since 1974 and a member of the Hall of Fame. “It’s the only team sport I’m still involved with. My athletes have gotten a lot older. They’re in their 40s and 50s, and it’s the only thing that we still do where they run around a lot.”

Coach April Wyatt of the St. Joseph Griffons team agreed.

“It’s different from any other Special Olympics sport they play,” she said. “It’s a little rougher. A little quicker.”

The youngest athlete Sunday was 16-year-old Shaquana Hobbs of Independence. Lovelace, 38, is of south Kansas City.

The game of floor hockey was developed by the National Hockey League and, except for the puck, the rules are the same, said May. Players use sticks to move a felted ring around on the gym floor, trying to shoot it into the opponent’s goal. The players wear helmets, masks and shin guards.

“Get in front of it!” encouraged coach Bea Webb from the sidelines. “Push! C’mon, orange, go after it!”

Webb has been a Special Olympics volunteer and coach for nearly 40 years and is also a Hall of Fame member.

“The rewards are the smiles from the athletes and the camaraderie,” Webb said during a break between matches. “I’ve coached quite a few sports, but I love team sports because everybody plays together. It’s not an ‘I’ game, it’s a team game. To watch them play with each other, speak with each other, high five each other. It doesn’t matter about the gold, silver or any placement. It’s about how we play the game. That’s my reward.”

The orange team, from the Trails West State School in Kansas City, was at a bit of a disadvantage Sunday as two of its players had recently been sick.

“When we play up in Omaha we’ll have one more person with us, so that will give us at least one sub,” May said.

Before the first match, purple team player Allen Tobin, 44, of Independence, led his fellows in a recitation of the athlete’s oath:

“Let me win, but if I cannot win let me be brave in the attempt.”

This story was originally published January 24, 2016 at 6:28 PM with the headline "Special Olympians practice floor hockey ahead of Heartland Winter Games."