The Admirals on Wednesday announced a multi-year partnership with the Wisconsin Adaptive Sports Association (WASA), a local nonprofit organization that promotes community collaboration on sports and recreation opportunities for individuals with mobility and visual impairments in the greater Milwaukee area.
As part of the partnership, the WASA sled hockey team will be called the WASA Admirals and wear Admirals jerseys. Along with the Ads' financial commitment, the club also plans to host sled hockey demonstrations during games at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena, as well as other events in the future.
"We are proud to join forces with WASA to help build their programs and increase access to adaptive sports, especially hockey," Admirals Owner/CEO Harris Turer said in a statement. "This partnership goes to one of the goals of our organization, which is to grow the game of hockey at all levels."
Established in 2013, the Wisconsin Adaptive Sports Association is a collective charitable entity that united a group of adaptive sports teams and programs to provide greater access and opportunities to those in the community with a physical disability or visual impairment.
Sled hockey, a sit-down version of ice hockey for players whose disability prevents them from playing the stand-up version of the sport, is one of seven WASA programs. In April, the WASA Admirals will compete in the 14th annual Toyota-USA Hockey Disabled Hockey Festival in West Dundee, Illinois.
"We are grateful for the support of the Admirals," said Mike Uihlein, the WASA sled hockey general manager and team physician for the US Paralympic Sled Hockey team. "Our athletes are so excited to be wearing Admirals jerseys when we compete for the first time in USA Hockey’s Disabled Hockey Festival in West Dundee. We know that our partnership will help raise awareness of sled hockey in our community and our athletes are fired up to play hockey and support our home team."
Entering its second season, the sled hockey team has nearly doubled its roster of athletes, according to WASA, and will also welcome new players. The partnership with the Admirals will allow WASA to add new equipment, while providing shared community outreach and education about the game of sled hockey. In addition to sled hockey, WASA also offers wheelchair basketball, wheelchair lacrosse, wheelchair softball, wheelchair tennis, wheelchair bowling and quad rugby.
For more information on WASA and its programs, to learn about other partnerships or to donate, please visit wasa.org.
Born in Milwaukee but a product of Shorewood High School (go ‘Hounds!) and Northwestern University (go ‘Cats!), Jimmy never knew the schoolboy bliss of cheering for a winning football, basketball or baseball team. So he ditched being a fan in order to cover sports professionally - occasionally objectively, always passionately. He's lived in Chicago, New York and Dallas, but now resides again in his beloved Brew City and is an ardent attacker of the notorious Milwaukee Inferiority Complex.
After interning at print publications like Birds and Blooms (official motto: "America's #1 backyard birding and gardening magazine!"), Sports Illustrated (unofficial motto: "Subscribe and save up to 90% off the cover price!") and The Dallas Morning News (a newspaper!), Jimmy worked for web outlets like CBSSports.com, where he was a Packers beat reporter, and FOX Sports Wisconsin, where he managed digital content. He's a proponent and frequent user of em dashes, parenthetical asides, descriptive appositives and, really, anything that makes his sentences longer and more needlessly complex.
Jimmy appreciates references to late '90s Brewers and Bucks players and is the curator of the unofficial John Jaha Hall of Fame. He also enjoys running, biking and soccer, but isn't too annoying about them. He writes about sports - both mainstream and unconventional - and non-sports, including history, music, food, art and even golf (just kidding!), and welcomes reader suggestions for off-the-beaten-path story ideas.
