"Don't Just Sit There, Play Hockey!"

That's the bold slogan of the Wheelchair Hockey League, an organization begun and run by several wheelchair-using, hockey-loving youths with neuromuscular diseases from the Detroit area. Hockey and wheelchairs? Absolutely.

Dozens of players ranging in age from 10 to 27 have embraced this thriving league and the opportunity to play the sport they've grown up watching.

Hockey needs only slight adaptations for both power and manual wheelchair users to get into the game. And do they ever get into it.

Players block, shoot, pass, score, sweat, laugh and sometimes throw their sticks down in disgust in the game played on a gymnasium-type floor with a whiffle ball instead of a heavier hockey puck.

Matt Schwarck and Andy Siwarski fight for the ball.

"It's a blast," said Andy Siwarski, the league's president and general manager, who has Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). "It's a sport that a lot of different abilities can do."

About 35 young players - including four females - are currently involved in the WCHL, which was started in 1995. Families come from the greater Detroit region, and from across the nearby Canadian border, to play.

Action, strategy and intense competition highlight the game, but the main priority is fun. Evidence: There's been one documented brawl during a practice game, according to a recent edition of the WCHL's newsletter, Slapshot. But investigation showed that the punches were staged, mostly to see the referee's reaction. Laughter, not penalty minutes, was the end result.

Players use a variety of hockey sticks, depending on their upper body strength and ability to grip the stick. Some use a lightweight plastic stick with a handle at the top, and others use "double sticks" - two sticks fastened together so the blades form a V, and strapped to the player's leg or chair frame.

The league has its own book of rules with provisions for certain adaptations. For example, if a player has the ball inside a V stick, other players can't touch it, but must maneuver in front of the player to try to steal the ball. Rules also protect wheelchairs from damage, essentially treating the chair as an extension of the player's body.

Sheryl Strumbaugh and Schwarck fight for the ball

WCHL games are played three-on-three or four-on-four and usually with no goalies. The league assembles about three times a month and plays year-round with a season of games in the fall and spring.

Various hockey leagues for people with disabilities exist in the United States and Canada. But, players say what makes the WCHL unique is that it allows manual and power wheelchairs, boys and girls, and people with any type of disability to take part.

"The competition is good, and it gives you something a little more physical to do," said Matt Schwarck, a 27-year-old college student who has spina bifida and uses a manual wheelchair. "You could play pool or bowl or something, and that's all good, but this is a team sport and that's what makes it great."

WCHL History: One Player's Wild Idea

From meager beginnings, the hockey league has grown to five teams and includes a league physician, a season-culminating tournament, a monthly newsletter, a banquet, regularly tabulated statistics, a Web site, an all-star event and even a yearly game played on ice.

It all began from the dream of one player, Todd Pasant.

In 1995 Pasant was experiencing increasing complications from DMD and had entered hospice care. About that time he came home from MDA summer camp with a grand list of things to accomplish, and one of them was to start a wheelchair hockey league, his parents, Gary and Pam Pasant, said.

"That just blew us away because here we were going, 'OK, honey, that's a great idea.' We were humoring him, really - and now just look at this," said Pam Pasant while watching a recent practice game.

Todd and some classmates had enjoyed playing floor hockey in high school gym class, but once he graduated he had few opportunities to play.

He and friend Andy Siwarski made up a flier about starting a league and asked Maggie Segal, MDA health care service coordinator in Canton, Mich., to help circulate it.

"I said if you find a place to play and get your parents to help you, I'll promote it," Segal said. "And it just grew by word of mouth.

"It's really overwhelming to watch the whole thing come together. It gives everybody a normal thing to do on a Saturday afternoon," Segal said.

Initially, six players gathered to play on a regular basis. As word spread, the number of participants doubled.

Just as the league began to come together, Todd passed away in May 1996. Siwarski and Tom Martin, who also has DMD, refused to let Todd's vision fizzle.

"They took Todd's dream and they just ran with it. They've done more than I'm sure Todd ever dreamed about," Pam Pasant said.

Today, Martin serves as WCHL vice president and editor of the colorful monthly WCHL newsletter. Siwarski, 23, and his parents, John and Mary Lou, continue to spearhead the running of the league.

Volunteers, Good Hearts and a Little Luck

At times, it seems the league almost magically came together, its organizers say. Sponsors, donations and even celebrities have helped.

One person helped secure team jerseys. Someone else chipped in with equipment. Volunteers and parents have come through with everything from medical support to venues for play, to bringing snacks and sodas.

Andy's father served as a volunteer coach when the team traveled to Toronto, and regularly gets in the thick of the action as the league's head referee.

"With me being referee, I'm right there. I get to see everything that's happening," said John Siwarski, who has to hide his "proud dad" emotions when officiating. "If Andy wins the championship, I shake his hand just like I shake everybody else's hand."

A key gain came in 1998 when the league gained a sponsor. The South-field Hockey Club, from a suburb northwest of Detroit, lends logistical support and puts on a yearly hockey extravaganza, Mega Skate, to benefit MDA.

Gerry Lullove, who organizes the Labor Day event, also helped arrange a trip for WCHL players to a tournament in Toronto in May, a turning point event.

An all-star squad was chosen from each team to play in the Toronto tournament. It was the first look at outside competition for most of the players.

"They practice, practice, practice, but when they got out there and got that first win, it took them to another level," Lullove said of the team's 1-win, 5-loss tournament effort.

Another unforeseen bonus: League events have become an unofficial support group for players' parents. Information and empathy flow freely, and parents discuss the challenges raised by their children's disabilities, Mary Lou Siwarski said.

The hours of volunteer work needed to keep things organized are a worthwhile labor of love that's become a family affair for the Siwarskis.

"I was never good enough to play, but I've always loved the game of hockey. When Andy said he wanted to play, of course, I was going to do everything in my power to make it happen," said John, who credits Andy and Mary Lou with making the league a success.

"It's meant a great sense of accomplishment. We do a lot of paperwork, I do a lot of mailings, a lot of hauling of equipment every week," Mary Lou said. "But to see the goodwill that comes from it... Why else would I go every week and do hours and hours of work when I don't even like hockey?"

All for Love of the Game

WCHL's in-your-face slogan echoes an attitude shared by many of its players: Live life to the max - and play as much hockey as possible.

"Hockey is just a special sport. It's just a fun sport, and it's so high-paced," Andy Siwarski said during a break from an off-season session to practice skills. "A lot of kids here, they don't get to do many other things as far as getting out of the house and stuff. That's the biggest thing - to keep active."

For some, the chance to compete is a highlight.

Paul D'Angelo and Schwarck show good sportsmanship.

"The competitive edge is really good here. The best part is that you can shut down certain people for an entire game," said Jay May, taking the opportunity to give teammate Mike Belanger a good ribbing.

Belanger, who responded to May with "yeah, yeah, rub it in," agreed, and said that close friendships among players also spice up the competition.

"The closeness comes when we're off the floor, and the game is just a bonus," said Belanger, who has cerebral palsy and uses a manual wheelchair.

"I'm friends with half the league and I talk to them constantly," Martin said. "Most of us were friends before the league even started. Now that it's so big, I'm constantly training new players and I'm willing to help them."

Claire Abraham, the first girl to enter the WCHL, said her fellow players encouraged her improvement as a player.

"I have a lot of fun playing in this league," said Abraham, 11, who has spinal muscular atrophy and uses a motorized wheelchair. "When I first joined the league, I was the youngest and the only girl in the league. I liked playing hockey but I didn't have any friends in the league. And now I do, plus there's more girls, and I'm a better player."

The bonding among players has been strengthened by the deaths of some teammates during the league's short history. Others have endured lengthy illnesses, played through injuries and found the strength to keep playing hockey.

Players who are ill "always come to play the game - it gets their mind off being sick," said May, who has DMD. "I went through that earlier this year. I was sick off and on, and now I'm back."

May's late brother, Jeff, put a new face on toughness at one point by playing with oxygen tanks strapped to his wheelchair.

"Jeff played a game two weeks before he died, and he was actually mad at himself because he thought he didn't play good enough. He thought he should play better," Kathy May said of her son. "I really feel that if it wasn't for hockey he wouldn't have lived as long as he did."

David Rosen demonstrates V-stick ball control.

WCHL players know that Pasant, May and others who've died would be proud of how far the league has come, Belanger said.

"The players that passed away - this is beyond their expectations. I know they're up there watching down on us, and causing trouble, causing bad bounces once in a while," Belanger said.

Hockey has helped motivate some players to keep healthy. David Simpson, the league's volunteer physician and MDA clinic director in Farmington Hills, Mich., said he's seen positive health benefits in several WCHL participants.

When players get sick, the first question to Simpson is often: "When can I go back and play hockey?"

"We use that. It's a positive motivator. It gets them well again, and keeps them fighting," Simpson said. "They're staying physically active. They're out here exercising. You can see the positive energy. They're smacking their sticks on the ground, like, 'Man, I should have scored!'"

New Dreams: More Exposure and a National League

WCHL players want people to know their league isn't just a "warm and fuzzy" program to make kids with disabilities feel special. While they have lots of fun, they're serious about what they're doing.

Their sincerity is perfectly clear to the WCHL's growing base of fans, including legendary Detroit Red Wings player and Hall of Famer Ted Lindsay, who often stops by to support the players.

"It's no different right here than in my game when I was playing professionally. All these kids have different degrees of competitiveness," Lindsay said. "There are some that are, 'OK, fine we're playing and that's great,' but there are some kids that there is only one reason they are there, and that's to win. This is natural, it's normal and it's wonderful."

As the WCHL continues to flourish, league leaders have many new ideas, such as perhaps adding goalies to make the games more competitive with other wheelchair leagues. More travel and games against other leagues are also on the agenda.

Plus, players want to get the word out nationally that hockey is a terrific sport for wheelchair users.

Chris Lemieux, a WCHL player who crosses the border from Windsor, Ontario, to participate, heartily agrees. "There's kids that sit at home and do nothing and they don't think there's anything there for them," he said.

Lemieux, who has spinal muscular atrophy, acknowledged there are many sports for wheelchair users with upper body strength, but wheelchair hockey is different, he said.

"This, anyone can play. It doesn't matter how weak you are. We have a guy who can't move his arms very well, so he straps his stick to his leg."

In other words: Don't just sit there. Play hockey!