Sask. woman first-ever from province to make Team Canada women’s sledge hockey team

It’s been five years since Tracey Arnold started reclaiming her love of hockey.

Now, she is at the pinnacle of her sport – and the pride of Saskatchewan’s sledge hockey community.

Arnold, 41, was announced as one of Team Canada’s three goalies for the national women’s sledge hockey team last week.

She’s the first-ever member of the team from Saskatchewan.

“It’s pretty unbelievable,” she told 650 CKOM on Monday. “It’s been a lot of hard work and it’s paying off.”

Sledge hockey is an adaptive sport, designed to level the playing field between able-bodied athletes and those with disabilities. It involves players sitting in a bucket with their legs strapped into metal bars extending from the seat, creating a sled. Skate blades sit underneath the seat, and players propel themselves using ice picks on the bottoms of two sticks – which are also used to control the puck.

Arnold’s job is a bit harder as a goalie though. Sledge hockey still uses a full-sized hockey net, and as the goaltender Arnold sits cross-legged in her sled – with her head positioned right in the middle of where players are aiming.

“Unfortunately I do take a lot of shots sometimes in the head,” Arnold said.

“But sometimes you do what you got to do to keep the puck out of the net.”

She also doesn’t have the benefit of having two sticks to propel herself across the crease. Instead, she uses spikes on the bottom of both her blocker and glove to help push herself side-to-side, and to help her get up after making a save.

“It’s a lot of off-ice training in spring and summer sessions,” she said of building the strength to push herself off the ice to grab a rebound.

Arnold plays sledge hockey in part because of an incomplete spinal cord injury she suffered when she was 12 years old, when her family was in a car crash.

She was initially paralyzed by the injury, ending her childhood hockey career.

But over the years she gained some movement back, with the help of her family and staff at her school in Oxbow, Sask.

She continued with athletic endeavours in her adult years, competing in arm wrestling before she discovered Saskatoon had an organized sledge hockey team — the Saskatoon Ice Tornadoes.

Arnold said the discovery in 2014 helped reignite her on-ice passion.

“Getting back on the ice, getting back to the roots of my love of hockey has been super fun,” she said.

After playing defence for one year, she donned the goalie pads and set her sights on making Team Canada.

She said while she hadn’t been to any selection camps before August, she got in touch with the national team coaches and she’s been taking advice from them over the years to help prepare her for her shot.

“That’s been amazing to have their feedback … I knew how to prepare,” she said.

Brenda Carter, manager of the Saskatoon Ice Tornadoes, said the team saw something special in Arnold as soon as she joined the team. She said Arnold took “no time at all” to figure out how to move swiftly on a sled, gaining speed and agility right away.

“She’s always been a go-getter, she’s always strived and she’s so competitive,” Carter said.

“It was just a matter of time before she made Team Canada.”

Arnold, 41, finally got her opportunity to make the national team during an open selection camp in August, where she impressed enough to make the team for the 2019-2020 season.

Now, she’s preparing to head to Nova Scotia in October for a camp and mini tournament with Team Canada, before returning to her Saskatoon club for practice in November.

She said it’s an honour to be Saskatchewan’s first-ever representative on the team, but does it add a little pressure to her performance.

“Of course it does,” she said.

As for Carter and the Ice Tornadoes, there’s hope that Arnold’s national team achievement will add to the interest in people wanting to join the team.

“Tracey now having a disability herself and excelling so greatly at the sport, it will hopefully bring in other people who’ve had an interest in sledge hockey prior,” Carter said.

Editor’s note: Chris Vandenbreekel is also a member of the Saskatoon Ice Tornadoes sledge hockey club.