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CNY Flyers Show Why Sports Transcend Winning and Losing CNY Flyers Show Why Sports Transcend Winning and Losing

By Brendon Hodges

BRENDON HODGES: Ice rinks are always flooded with sounds you’d expect. Blades cutting across ice. Pucks being launched into boards. What you might not expect though, are the sights you’ll see on Sunday afternoons. Men and women of all ages taking to the ice not on skates…but in sleds.

ERIC KOMAR: I was born with a condition called spina bifida. Basically, what that is is when…at least one or more vertebrae don’t completely form which leaves the spine vulnerable to damage.

HODGES: Eric Komar is one of the many sled-drivers that make up the CNY Flyers. A sled hockey team made up of players with physical limitations. For some, like Komar, it’s a great source of physical activity.

KOMAR: It’s been great to have an hour on Sundays where we can come and have a touch of normalcy, get some exercise because…with me I’m a bigger guy. If I wasn’t careful about what I ate, making sure I had enough activity. I could have really blown up, and put on a lot of weight.

HODGES: For others, it’s become a lifestyle.

COLIN GOOLEY: I lost my leg due to cancer. I was eight-years-old…and I grew up playing…lacrosse, any sport, snowboarding, golf.

HODGES: Since then, Colin Gooley has made the best of his situation, and mastered the sport, earning a spot on the United States National Sled Hockey team, and winning a gold medal at the 2019 World Championships.

GOOLEY: It definitely took a few practices to really kind of get the feel for it. I mean you’re body’s not really used to moving like that. There was definitely a few practices with frustration. But I think really just the kind of feeling of everybody being on a level
playing field, I’m still learning the game now.

HODGES: Flyers head coach Chuck Gridley is more than happy to welcome whoever wants to join, and can’t stress enough the importance of having adaptive sports present in Central New York.

CHUCK GRIDLEY: I can see, for the players that have come out, played with us, stuck with us, I can see a big difference in their lives.

HODGES: And while COVID may have limited their chances to compete, they’re back on the ice now. Enjoying every last second of playing the game they’ve come to love, together.

GOOLEY: It’s guys with various disabilities and really, I think that really brings us close together, kind of a shared experience of adversity. It’s just do fun that I think everyone always enjoys themselves out here. We always want anybody to come out and try it, you know I just had my fiancé come out today and try it for the first time.

HODGES: And they’ll continue to have fun until the door closes…on another sled hockey season. In Skaneateles, Brendon Hodges, NCC News.

SKANEATELES, N.Y. (NCC News) —Eric Komar spends his Sundays at the Skaneateles YMCA demonstrating how to overcome physical limitations. He’s one of the goalies for the CNY Flyers, a hockey team made up primarily of people with disabilities. Komar was born with spina bifida.

“Basically, what that is is when at least one or more vertebrae don’t completely form,” Komar said. “which leaves the spine vulnerable to damage.”

The players take to the ice on sleds. Komar, along with many of his teammates, joined the Flyers at their inception a decade ago. They have a very practical reason for doing so.

“It’s been great to have an hour on Sundays where we can come and have a touch of normalcy and get some exercise,” Komar said, “Because…with me I’m a bigger guy. If I wasn’t careful about what I ate, making sure I had enough activity, I could have really
blown up, and put on a lot of weight.”

Flyers head coach Chuck Gridley sees that sort of motivation, and it’s the reason why he said the presence of adaptive sports in Central New York is so important.

“I can see — for the players that have come out, played with us, stuck with us — I can see a big difference in their lives,” Gridley said.

 

Sometimes those differences come in the form of life changing opportunities. Defenseman Colin Gooley is a perfect reflection of that.

“I lost my leg due to cancer. I was eight-years-old, and I grew up playing lacrosse, any sport, snowboarding, golf,” Gooley said. “It definitely took a few practices to really kind of get the feel for it. I mean, your body’s not really used to moving like that. I’m still learning the game now.”

But he’s learning it at the highest level. Gooley is in a pool of players working to be included on the United States National Sled Hockey Team for the upcoming Winter Paralympics. He’s already made an appearance for the team before, helping the red, white and blue win the gold medal at the 2019 World Para Ice Hockey Championships. No matter what the level of competition is though, Gooley is happy he made the choice to play.

“It’s [people] with various disabilities and really, I think that really brings us close together, kind of a shared experience of
adversity,” Gooley said, “It’s just so fun that I think everyone always enjoys themselves out here.”

Gooley also welcomes those who are on the fence about playing to come in and give it a try.

“We always want anybody to come out and try it,” Gooley said. “You know I just had my fiancee come out today and try it for the first time.”

No matter who comes though, the Flyers will continue to hit the ice for the next five weeks before closing the door on another sled hockey season.

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