Hockey mom builds a hockey team for a special boy

There are hockey moms, and then there is Randi Miller-Gol.

Miller-Gol plays hockey, and her son Kazim followed the sport with her, so it made sense for Miller-Gol to find an opportunity to get her son involved in the sport they both loved.

Except Kazim, 8, was diagnosed with non-verbal autism and epilepsy, which made it much harder for him to find a hockey team to join.

The only opportunity I found was Northern Virginia, Miller-Gol said. Of course we were welcome to join their team, but the journey was too far. So I put it forward that I was interested in starting an adaptive hockey team if there wasn’t one that I didn’t know about already.

Someone sent a screenshot of that message to the league director of the American Special Hockey Association, who eventually got in touch and said, Yeah, you can start a team. You need a name and a logo and just a lot of ambition to make it work, Miller-Gol said.

Within a month and a half of that call in March 2021, the Richmond Retrievers became the ASHA League’s 100th team in June 2021 formations. According to Miller-Goli, there are now 105 teams.

Miller-Gols’ son currently plays hockey on a team with about 20 other children and adults with special needs who also want to play hockey.

Our team had all the skills. Any ability, Miller-Gol said. Nevertheless, we will try to find a way. If they want to be on the team, we’ll try to find a way to accommodate their needs.”

The Retrievers have spent the last two years meeting their athletes at their level and developing the fundamentals of playing hockey. The primary goal is to teach everyone to skate.

Of course, there are still players who need help skating. For those athletes, there are adaptive ice supports that consist of ice slides or stacked buckets that help maintain balance. Most important, however, are the team’s volunteers.

I think the key factor in our program is definitely our volunteers,” Miller-Gol said. What makes us truly unique is that we have personal coaching per athlete while they are on the ice. This personalization is very important for athletes to access drills, routines, structures, drills, skating drills and scrimmages. Of course they have to want to be there and do it, but it’s really that personal support that helps them do it.

“So, I say volunteers are incredibly important. Above all else. Above money and ice, our volunteers would be our biggest need right now.

The team’s volunteers come from different backgrounds. Some are parents of a team member; some are community members who play hockey in local adult leagues; others may have a family member or loved one with special needs.

Everyone has their own reason for wanting to be a part of our community, and they’re all really warm-hearted,” Miller-Gol said.

The Richmond Generals and Washington Little Capitals youth hockey teams also volunteered to help the Retrievers players.

Those kids have been great, Miller-Gol said. Half of our volunteer base is from the Richmond Generals. They just get out there and our players feel incredibly accepted by them because they’re all around the same age. They feel so good when they can help our team.

The Richmond Retrievers are a 501(c)3 non-profit organization with two corporate sponsors, Resources for Independent Living and Capital Ale House.

Resources for Independent Living is our biggest sponsor this year, Miller-Gol said. They sponsor ice time every month for a year. So did Capital Ale House, our two biggest sponsors there. Between the two of them, our families won’t have to pay a cent to play hockey this year.

The players’ families did not have to pay a registration fee to skate this year. But they also don’t have to pay for equipment and supplies.

Also with our equipment, another unique thing about our team is that we provide equipment, Miller-Gol said. When you joined us, we prepared you. We didn’t ask you to go out and buy equipment because hockey is so expensive, especially for families in our community who already struggle with the added costs of disability and special needs.

The team relies mostly on donations of used equipment from the local hockey community; However, one thing that Miller-Gol has to buy new or nearly new are helmets. This is because the helmets have an expiration date as their shock-absorbing lining breaks down over time, so the team must constantly replace outdated helmets.

Other things Miller-Gol can use team funds for are jerseys, hockey socks and other equipment that has not been donated. They also do the annual Teamwork Journey of Hope 4 Autism event. According to Miller-Goli, the outing is designed as a way to give the team more opportunities to get off the ice and build friendships.

To help raise additional funds for the teams aspirations of SkateNation Plus in Glen Allen, the Retrievers’ home arena will host the teams first annual charity exhibition game.

The event consisted of two teams made up of all Retrievers volunteers playing against each other. There was a silent auction with items donated by sponsors, raffles, baked goods and items for purchase. 100 percent of the proceeds, including the entry fee, went directly to the Retrievers. According to Miller-Gol, the event raised over $6,000 and that’s enough to fund our season twice, Miller-Gol said.

The 2023-24 Retrievers team was introduced during the first intermission of the exhibition game, where the players were introduced to a standing ovation by skating a few laps around the court.

One of the big things on Miller-Gol’s wish list is to be able to raise enough sponsorship money for the Retrievers to start traveling to play other teams in the ASHA league. He also wants the team to be able to participate in some ASHA league events, such as traveling to New York, where the league is hosting its version of the National Hockey Leagues Winter Classic, playing outdoors.

Looking ahead, Miller-Gol wants to see the team continue to grow, not only in the number of players, but also in the number of volunteers.

I know only a small part of the community knows about us, Miller-Gol said. So as we grow and the word gets out, I’m sure there will be other kids, not even kids, because our team is five and up, so you can be an adult too. Just getting the word out and letting people know this is an option in a community that still welcomed players and volunteers.

For parents who are afraid to let their SEN child try skating, Miller-Gol encourages them to come to practice first and observe. Equipment is supplied and fully equipped so it’s like being bubble wrapped. There is also an individual volunteer as well as adaptive ice supports to help them learn to skate.

“We’ve actually been concerned about families as well whose kids would like to do this, but they don’t feel like they’re experienced enough, they don’t know how to skate well,” Miller-Gol said. We can’t focus on what they can’t focus on what they can’t do, we were just going to focus on what they can do and we won’t know what they can do until they get out. Many parents have been very surprised that some children who have never been on ice before in their lives have taken to it as if they were born for it. We can never say that our child cannot do something.

Miller-Gol has been surprised by the community support the team has received.

“When I say the whole community comes together to make sure these kids get on the ice, it’s really the whole community,” Miller-Gol said. All we can do. It just blows my mind how awesome it is. I’ve never seen anything like it. The hockey community is the best community ever.

As a former player, Miller-Gol knew what hockey could offer Richmond’s special needs children. It has been inspiring to see the team grow from just an idea to a full-fledged team with the support of sponsors, the hockey community, the special needs community and volunteers.

It builds trust and friendships, so even if it was just a social activity where kids could get together, go out on the ice and just enjoy themselves through the sport, through the game, even if it didn’t look like hockey at all, even if it just looked like what their interpretation of hockey was, that was great, Miller-Gol said. For some players it has grown into a functional hockey and for some players it is still a very social club and both are ok. When our athletes are on the ice, they don’t want to stand out because of their injuries. When they go on the ice, they are hockey players.

For anyone who may be interested in volunteering, joining or supporting in any way, Randi Miller-Gol can be reached at [email protected] and more information can be found at https://richmondretrievers.wordpress.com/