Special Needs Ice Hockey Team Has 1 Goal: To Show Lots Of Heart
LOS ANGELES (CBS) — On CBS 2 News at 11 p.m. Tuesday, Lisa Sigell will introduce us to a special hockey team...made up, in fact, of a lot of special needs kids and adults.
This team, brimming with heart, has one goal in mind. To show they're just as good as anyone else.
Some have autism, or cerebral palsy...but as Sigell reports, nothing stops these guys...and gals.
It is the Southland's first and only ice hockey team made up of kids and adults with special needs.
They call themselves the California Condors, appropriate because this team is destined to fly high.
Does any other team better embody the phrase, it's not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game? Surely, not.
Sigell also reports this program is free. Call it the "Rink of Dreams" and the Condors are making them come true, one player at a time.
Rita Eagle (shouldn't that be Condor?!) started the team for her son Benjamin. He played on a special needs team in Canada, but they couldn't find a team when they moved to Southern California. (Necessity IS the mother of invention, after all.)
The team practices at the Valley Ice Center in Panorama City. (Because there's no California team to compete against, the Condors compete out of state and even out of the country for tournaments.)
For more information about getting your son or daughter on the team, or if you are interested in donating to the cause, click here.
