Calls for a Canadian Blind Hockey team in Manitoba

Blind hockey players in Winnipeg are calling on others in the province to join the sport, in hopes of getting enough people to form an official Manitoba team.

“I played hockey as a young adult and kid and then I lost my vision in 2015 and I’ve just started back up playing in the last few months,” said Ronald Johnson, a blind hockey player.

Johnson is preparing for his first Canadian National Blind Hockey tournament at the end of March, where he’ll travel to Toronto to compete against other players in the country.

“It’s really different from using your vision to stop a puck to listening and getting your body in front of the puck from the sound,” he explained.

The hockey Johnson plays is a little different from the game with sighted players. There’s a bigger puck that rattles so people can follow its sound, and there are whistles in the game to signal different things. But for Johnson, who is completely blind due to glaucoma, it brings back all the same feelings.

“It brings back memories of playing as a kid and a young adult. That hockey high I guess would be a good way to put it,” explained Johnson.

Scarlette Dorn, a close family friend of Johnson, is going with him to the tournament. Dorn has less than 10 per cent of her vision due to reduced peripheral vision, nystagmus, and optic nerve hypoplasia.

“We’re a unit on and off the ice and you want the best for everyone next to you and everyone against you,” said Dorn.

“My hockey journey started at a young age and then abruptly ended because I could not keep up with the pace and the tracking of the sighted hockey puck. It wasn’t until 2015 that I discovered Blind Hockey … It really sparked my love to play hockey again and made me feel included in a sport that I fell in love with on an outdoor rink here in Winnipeg, Manitoba.”

The pair are calling for other blind and visually impaired hockey players, or those who are interested in getting into the sport, to play with them.

“I’m hoping that we can come together and create a space that’s inclusive to everybody that allows them to fall in love with the sport just the same way I did.”

Executive director for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, Kyle Mason, says he hopes Johnson and Dorn are successful in recruiting other Manitobans to join them in their hockey journey.

“I have a couple family members who have either recently or from birth have lost their sight. So I’m getting a greater understanding to some of the things that people have to address and think about that many of us don’t have to,” said Mason.

“We’re Canadian so we all love hockey … People who have no sight or low sight are no different. I think it’s a great initiative that’s happening across Canada that needs to happen here. We’re seeing the beginnings of it and I’m excited to see it grow.”

Dorn says anyone wanting to join her and Johnson in playing can reach out to her via social media.