Confidence on the Ice

How a Sled, Two Sticks, and a Puck Change Lives in Montana

Text by Shane Klippenes and Photography by Jim Wells

Naseem Zaidi is a 10-year old boy from an Air Force family, who moved to Great Falls, Montana last year. The youngest of five children in a loving family with an energetic, engaged Mom (Shelly) who would move mountains for him, Naseem looks “normal” but struggles with severe autism that has left him functionally non-verbal. As a result, many things that the rest of us take for granted can be a challenge for him, including group engagement or team sports.

The Zaidi Family found a way to fill this void for Naseem when they discovered Eagle Mount Great Falls, a non-profit organization providing therapeutic and recreational activities for children, adults and veterans of all ages with physical, developmental, mental and/or behavioral challenges. Eagle Mount has been active in Great Falls for 26 years, is not federally funded in any way, and employs six full-time employees and a bevy of active volunteers who impact the lives of hundreds throughout North Central Montana each year. Programs for adults and children with disabilities include skiing, bowling, horseback riding and the more recent addition of sled hockey.

According to Jill Van Son, Program Director, Eagle Mount strives to create programs for children and adults with disabilities that give them the opportunity to interact socially and sharpen physical, emotional and social skills, while burning off energy competing alongside athletes of similar abilities. Not content to grow stagnant in their program offerings, volunteers and staff at Eagle Mount continually “look for ways to take popular activities that able-bodied people participate in and adapt them for those with limitations.”

The Eagle Mount Sled Hockey Program was born from this type of innovative thinking when life-altering disability touched a hockey family. After years spent playing and coaching hockey, a man who had been active in youth hockey throughout Montana developed multiple sclerosis and was no longer able to play “stand up” hockey. He contacted Eagle Mount and asked them to consider founding a sled hockey program that would allow people of all levels of physical ability to participate in the sport that he loved.

Without in-depth knowledge of the sport or equipment involved, Jill reached out to USA Hockey for help, which proved to be a tremendous resource. Before long, USA Hockey had provided grant funding for the purchase of five sleds and equipment to jump start the fledgling Eagle Mount Sled Hockey Program.

Now, seven years later, Eagle Mount serves 15-17 sled hockey players each week at the Great Falls Community Ice Plex. With the assistance of volunteer coaches, assistants and mountains of sleds and safety equipment, participants enjoy friendly competition while exploring and pushing past the limits of their own disabilities.

Sled hockey athletes propel themselves on the ice with two sticks that also serve as tools to pass and shoot the hockey puck. According to Shelly, Naseem has received tremendous support from everyone at Eagle Mount, loves the sled hockey program, and is thriving as he pushes through new boundaries in the sled each week.

“People’s perception of him can be that Naseem isn’t bright because he doesn’t talk to them, but he’s actually much smarter than many his age. Eagle Mount expects that the kids that participate in their programs can do more than they appear to be able to do, and so create incredible opportunities for them to excel to pull that little extra out of them”, says Shelly. Naseem was fitted for a sled and safety equipment his first week in the program and has been taught new skills each week on the ice as his confidence and ability increase. Preferring to work within an area of familiarity around him, Naseem was challenged initially to pilot his sled across the entirety of the ice sheet. While he was content at first to use his sticks to pick at the ice, Shelly watched as the Eagle Mount coaches “got him to see the whole rink and not just the ice chips flying.” This opened up the game to a level of competition and interaction that stretches him in a fun way.

While talking with Shelly about the strides her son has made and the opportunities he’s embraced through sled hockey, she wondered aloud; “What type of magic is possible for a special needs child to enjoy and share with others when they are comfortable in their environment, like Naseem is at home or has become playing sled hockey?” With the strides that he and others have made as Eagle Mount’s program develops, that question is being answered weekly with ear to ear grins and laughter that echoes off the ice and throughout the rink. And for these athletes, isn’t that a lot like moving mountains?