Twice a year, members of the club ice hockey team travel to Hatfield Ice to help blind youngsters learn the sport. For the college athletes, it’s a labor of love.
“You know that they struggle, but the smiles never leave their faces,” says Jacob McCallion, a senior. “They’re happy to be there even when they fall. It’s impressive that they’re so young and so mature. They don’t let a handicap limit what they do.”
Senior Aiden Grabowski recalls working with a youngster named Xander. “It was his first year playing hockey, and he was trying to learn how to get his feet moving without falling down.” After some gentle coaching, Xander felt the joy of his first very tentative movement on skates.
“It’s awesome to be with the kids and see them smile on the ice,” admits Grabowski. “I just love it honestly. It puts me in a good spirit and makes me happy.”
According to Coach Steve Mescanti, club ice hockey players have been volunteering with the Philadelphia Blind Hockey (PBH) organization for three years. They travel to the rink in Colmar, Pa., twice in the fall.
During their first visit, they participate in an unusual exhibition game against other PBH volunteers to raise money for the organization. All players wear goggles that impair their vision, giving them the experience that the blind youngsters face every day.
“It’s weird and scary,” confesses McCallion, “but cool to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and see how hard it is and how strong these kids are.”
Their second visit involves coaching and bonding with the kids, all of whom are legally blind. The club players don their skates, gloves, and Neumann jerseys and hit the ice.
“We help them from tying their skates to getting on the ice with them,” explains Brian Barnett, a graduate student in the sport business program. “We help their coach run drills with them, and they really enjoy having college guys there, helping them ... They’re like we were when we were kids. They just love hockey.”
Coach Mescanti is proud of his squad. “The perception of hockey players,” he admits, “is that they’re rough and tough – and they are to a certain extent – but when opportunities like this come about, you get to see that there’s a lot more there than that rough-and-tumble persona. It’s a phenomenal experience, and they really embrace it. They’re quality people.”
For McCallion, the payoff for the club’s service project is simple: “I’ve always preferred helping others in person and seeing the genuine joy on someone’s face.”
Barnett agrees. “This is something we look forward to doing every year.”
According to the PBH website, blind hockey has been played in Canada since the early 1970s and arrived in the U.S. in 2014. Philadelphia established its first blind hockey team in 2022, partnering with the Philadelphia Flyers.
To qualify, PBH players must fall into one of the three International Blind Sports Federation classifications for limited sight. The main modification of the sport is the adapted puck that makes noise and is both bigger and heavier than a traditional hockey puck.