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Orangeville council congratulates Wolves for 25 years on the ice

December 5, 2024   ·   0 Comments

By JAMES MATTHEWS

The Orangeville Wolves hockey club has created a legacy of inclusion that will continue for many years.

Mayor Lisa Post said during council’s Dec. 2 meeting that the Orangeville Wolves is an organization that embodies the community’s standards of inclusion and empowerment.

“For 25 years, the Wolves have been more than a sports team,” she said. “They have been a family. A family that fosters connection, builds confidence, and demonstrates the power of teamwork.”

She said the hockey team has provided an avenue for so many people with intellectual disabilities to participate and to shine in a team environment.

It isn’t only the on-ice passion that makes the team so special. It’s the relationships that are built off the rink, she said.

“The friendships that they’ve forged, the sense of belonging that’s being fostered, and the unwavering support of families, coaches, and volunteers who pour their hearts into this program,” Post said.

Every time players put on their skates and step onto the ice, they demonstrate what it means to play with heart and to support each other as teammates and friends.

And none of it could have been possible without players’ families and volunteers who make it a reality.

“Your dedication is the foundation upon which this remarkable organization has thrived for a quarter of a century,” she said.

Last year, there were more than 200 participants in a gold tournament for the team. And the Wolves have played internationally and have hosted international teams in tournament play.

Kevin Stone, an executive board member of the Wolves, has been with the team since the beginning. He said the team is a product of two unruly kids at a midget level hockey practice in Toronto and a man named Pat Flick who stood up for them.

“As anybody knows who has brothers who are on the ice, the younger brothers are pulled along in tow and they play around the rink,” Stone said. “This team had two special needs kids on the team and, of course, they’re running around the rink.”

The rink manager yelled at the kids and told them to stop running around. They were in the arena’s lobby, chasing a puck. Pat Flick admonished the rink manager who told him the kids shouldn’t be running around off the ice. They should be on the ice, laced up and padded, passing a puck, gunning for the net.

But there were no opportunities available to kids with special needs to play the sport.

So Flick started the first team of players with developmental disabilities, the Grand Ravine Tornados.

Flick later moved to Orangeville for his job as a machinist and wanted to get a special needs hockey team started locally.

Once he secured the ice time, the Orangeville Wolves were started with just seven players. Twenty-five years later, the team now has 28 some players who are on the ice every Sunday.

Flick died in November 2023. He was 84 years old.

“It starts with one,” Stone said about the supporters who come aboard in such efforts. “It’s goes to two, it goes to five.”

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