Twenty-five years is a long time.
For the Bruno Sledge Hockey T-Birds that long time is now a reality.
The club recently celebrated their 25th anniversary.
To help celebrate, the club welcomed teams from all over the province for a tournament.
Teams from Saskatoon/Cutknife and Regina made the trek to help celebrate the club’s 25th anniversary.
Being able to welcome clubs from different areas of the province is nice, says Joan Manderscheid with the T-Birds, who notes it has been a long time coming. When they started the Bruno club there were very few teams in the province, pointing to Estevan as one of the few.
“For years we tried to start a team in Saskatoon but it was very hard to start another team. Now actually Kindersley has one, Saskatoon has one, Cutknife’s trying to put one together, Swift Current has a junior one so it’s growing, finally. It took a long time but it’s coming around.”
The Bruno club was started as a way to provide for those who could not play hockey, says Manderscheid, who notes her son was one of the driving factors.
“He had spina bifida and he wanted to play hockey like his big brother so we started the sledge hockey team and it just kept growing.”
Of course, 25 years is a long time, particularly for a less known sport like sledge hockey in a small town.
Manderscheid is quick to credit a “really good network of family and friends” who have been instrumental in keeping it going all these years.
“Phys. Ed. would try it and then some of them played two, three years, some one year… we have that many we could probably even field another team if we had to. So lots of people in Bruno are involved and stay involved. Bruno’s pretty sports-minded.”
Of course, this is also the same community, who have been heavily involved in broomball over the years.
Manderscheid notes that having both sledge hockey and broomball succeed in a small community like Bruno is a credit to the people.
“It’s pretty much if the nucleus stays then it seems to hang in there.”
Of course, while the club has been successful in consistently fielding a team, they have also enjoyed success on the ice.
With the province short on sledge hockey teams over the years, the Western Canadian Championships has been a go-to tournament for the T-Birds, and despite being short on playing opportunities throughout the winter, the T-Birds held their own.
In a span nine years, the T-Birds brought home a pair of Western Canadians golds in 2005 and 2006, a trio of silvers in 2010, 2011, and 2013, and a bronze in 2013.
All told, in a nine year span the T-Birds won six Western Canandian medals, pretty impressive for a small community like Bruno.
While the T-Birds generally continue to attend Westerns, Manderscheid says given the timing they will have to skip this year.
“This year it ends up on Easter weekend so there’s a couple going with Saskatoon, some of us chose because it was Easter, it was just not great timing but we’ve went the last 13 years, I think we missed one.”
While the tournament was a chance for the players to have some fun and the club to celebrate their 25th anniversary, the club also took a break from playing games to allow those in attendance a chance to try sledge hockey out.
Manderscheid notes this was done as a way to try to help grow the sport, by giving people a chance to try a sport they may not otherwise have the chance to.
Manderscheid also hopes those who tried it have a new appreciation for how difficult it is.
“It’s very demanding. We have to be really strong upper body.”
One of the biggest difficulties for some sledge hockey players is the inability to keep their legs from falling asleep on the sled, says Manderscheid.
“They find that putting their legs out like that all of a sudden their legs have no blood, some it doesn’t matter.”
While the tournament was about celebrating it also raised a little money, thanks in large part to sponsors, who provided prizes throughout the day.
“It really helps us out. This year has been fantastic for sponsorship,” says Manderscheid, who would like to thank all of the sponsors, and hopes everyone had fun.
