It's a big weekend for national sledge hockey programs around the world as the IPC Sledge Hockey World Championships are about to get underway in Marlborough, Massachusetts. The tournament runs from March 29th to April 5th at the New England Sports Center, and features teams from Canada, the USA, Germany, Italy, Norway, and Japan in Group A, while Group B features the Czech Republic, Estonia, Korea, and Poland.While I'll be cheering Team Canada on as they look for their first gold medal since 2000 in Salt Lake City, Utah, this article is actually to draw attention to the sport a little more.
I was contacted by Miss Alison Love via email regarding my previous coverage of sledge hockey events. Miss Love wanted to pass on some info regarding the upcoming World Championships, as well as some very exciting news, in my humble opinion.
You see, Miss Love is a producer who is currently working on a movie entitled Sledhead. Sledhead is a documentary about the Team Canada sledge hockey team, and the struggles and challenges facing the team as they head towards the World Championships in Massachusetts.
Miss Love's credentials are impeccable. According to her biography on the Sledhead website, Alison is a "multiple award-winning Marketing Director", and "graduated from college with a diploma in Television Arts". She's worked on a number of Discovery Channel series, including "Only In America", and has also been a production manager for a Slice Network production.
On this project, she teamed up with David McIlvride to direct the documentary. According to his biography on the website, Mr. McIlvride also comes with impressive credentials. He's "a two-time Gemini Award winning producer", which is the Canadian version of the Academy Awards. He has been involved in a number of highly-reknowned programs, including having produced "Adoption Stories, a television series for Discovery Health that won an Emmy".
This documentary reminds me of the amazing work done on the movie Murderball, the documentary that examined the struggles and challenges of the Canadian and American Paralympian rugby athletes. It won thirteen awards, and received another seven nominations, including an Academy Award nomination. If you haven't seen this movie, I suggest checking it out. It is a phenomenal look at what these men go through every single day, and just how much we may take for granted. You can get more info here about Sledhead and the goal of the movie.
Perhaps the best part of the entire website is the demo movie. If you can't feel the passion these guys have for the game of sledge hockey, you might want to see if your heart is still beating. Check out the Sledhead blog here as well.
I look forward to seeing this movie in its entirety, and I applaud and commend Alison Love and David McIlvride for exposing this sport to the world. Their website alone is an excellent resource for information.
Watch for Sledhead on television. As the website says, Sledhead "is a story of a remarkable team of athletes and even more remarkable men".
Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!
Thanks for the nice words ... we appreciate any interest in the documentary. Hopefully our work will resonate with the audience - you can't help but admire the efforts and love of the game these great athletes bring to sledge hockey - a game sorely under represented in the sports pages and minds of hockey fans across our nation. We're proud to be associated with the team and know that anyone who sees the final film will walk away feeling great respect to this group of athletes who sacrifice a lot to pull on the Canadian jersey and represent our country on the world stage. Spread the word.
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