Steel City Icebergs welcomes special needs players to the world of travel hockey
All Alex Weber wanted to do was play hockey.
His older brother, Adam, played for the Butler Valley Dawgs and he wanted to follow suit.
“Adam taught him how to skate,” their mother, Penn Township resident Chris Weber, said. “We got him skating lessons.
“Alex struggled with it when he was seven or eight years old. He was having trouble keeping up and the game changes as kids gets older.
“We made the decision to pull him off the team ... It broke his heart,” she added.
Alex Weber has Down Syndrome.
He still wanted to be a hockey player. So do other youths and adults like him.
So the Steel City Icebergs were formed, courtesy of the organization's founder and first president, Stephanie Maust. She is also a Penn Township resident and close friend to the Weber family.
“I felt Alex should have the opportunity to play the game,” Maust said. “So I started researching.
“I found there was an American Special Hockey Association nationally. I e-mailed them, started networking with people and we put together a business plan.”
That was in 2008.
Today, there are more than 100 special needs hockey programs like the Steel City Icebergs across the country.
The Icebergs have approximately 45 players in the organization now, ranging from youths to adults, players with autism, Down Sydrome, traumatic brain injuries, etc.
A full story appears on the sports page of Thursday's Butler Eagle.
