The Boston area is well-known for being hockey mad. But when Steve Nearman moved his family to the South Shore of Massachusetts in 2017, he found there were no special needs hockey programs nearby. 

His son, who is autistic, had fallen in love with the sport while playing with an inclusive program when they lived in Northern Virginia. Once his family had moved to Massachusetts, Nearman took to traveling to another program to get his son ice time. Then he met Erick McCroskey, who was doing the same thing for his son.

The two did their research and launched the Great Blizz (short for the Great Blizzards of Massachusetts Special Hockey) in 2019 together. 

“This area just needed a special hockey team. We’re hockey crazy,” Nearman said. 

The very first practice had about 12 participants, Nearman said. In the six years since, the Great Blizz has grown and expanded. The program’s still based at the Bog Ice Arena in Kingston, but now there are also groups at Cape Cod’s Tony Kent Arena, Winthrop’s Larsen Rink and the group just announced further expansion to Martha’s Vineyard. 

There are more than 85 participants across teams who play in tournaments around New England and even internationally. 

The group is currently preparing for USA Hockey’s Special Hockey Classic on Nov. 7-9 in Wayne, New Jersey.

Great Blizz hockey is open to players with cognitive, intellectual, developmental, or physical disabilities starting at age 4 up through adulthood. The program is strictly for standing hockey. 

“If you come to us and you've never skated before, we will get you skating, I promise you that,” Nearman said. “We will get you up upright and you will skate. You can just progress from learning to skate, learning to play hockey, and then learning to perfect hockey. We don't turn away anybody.”

There is no one answer for any of the questions or concerns that might pop up among Great Blizz players, but Nearman said everyone has a chance to learn and grow. He approaches everything with the attitude that it can be worked out. He will do research, consult with parents, talk to coaches and find solutions. 

The program has created a community for not just the players, but their families. The Great Blizz gives them all freedom they didn’t have elsewhere. Not only do the kids get to play the game and feel like every other hockey-obsessed kid who grows up in Eastern Massachusetts, but they also learn in a way they need to and get to form friendships. 

Nearman explained that many parents of special needs children end up self-isolating and staying out of public because of the way people react. So, while the Great Blizz is a fantastic place for special needs players, it also provides an environment where their families can feel comfortable being around other families who don't judge them for their players' behaviors.

“We take them out of seclusion, and we put them right there in the forefront with their players, in a place where they can cheer their players on and not be on edge or worrying that something will happen,” he said. “Something is definitely going to happen here. There will be a meltdown. That’s just part of our game and it's OK. Nobody looks at each other funny, and nobody even thinks it's unusual.”

There are plenty of benefits from simply getting to play hockey and be on the ice, but Great Blizz provides so much more for its participants. 

The benefits of playing sports, particularly on teams, are well-documented. Many of those same lessons apply with the Great Blizz: teamwork, following instructions, sportsmanship, decision-making, hydration, rest, selflessness, hard work, focus, determination, fairness and respect. 

For many participants, this is the first time they have had the opportunity to learn those lessons and put them into action.

“I tell people that in special hockey, we use this silly game of hockey to really teach life skills and soft skills which transfer over to home life, to school and to work,” Nearman said. 

“We teach players how to understand verbal or visual instructions, or both, teaching in non-conventional ways. We have to try to communicate where the player is and how the player accepts communication, and that can be really quite specialized in some areas. You're just trying to figure out what it is that helps you connect with that player.”

The teaching comes from a dedicated group of coaches who have made Great Blizz the successful program it is today. The program’s coaching staff used to have a hierarchy of titles, but Nearman said that’s gone away and anyone who’s on the ice helping players have fun is a coach. There is an 8-year-old coach in the program. Nearman believes in empowering high school, middle school and younger players to coach on the ice.

"We're raising a generation of people that have respect for special needs people, and that's really important,” Nearman said. “We show respect for people who are different from us.”

Despite all the work Norman puts into it, the feeling he leaves the rink with is always positive and it’s one of the reasons he’s still growing Great Blizz six years after planning to start just one program at a singular rink. 

He’s an active poster on the Great Blizz Facebook page thanks in part to the photographs taken by Bill Wedge, who Nearman calls the best wing man he could ever have. The photos document the players’ progression, allow families to stay involved and make the players feel even more important.

Putting together a post never fails to make him smile. Not everybody is going to have a great game or practice, but he said in posting the pictures, he’s always able to talk about at least one breakthrough. 

“It never fails,” Nearman said. “I never am at a loss for highlighting somebody who had a good day, or a great day, or a coach that just nailed it.

“Sometimes practice doesn't go exactly as planned, but if you don't prepare for that, you're working with the wrong population. I can honestly say that in all this time I don't feel like I've actually had a bad day coming back from hockey.”

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.