The Holy Ghost Prep hockey team returned home from its post-New Year’s trip to Pittsburgh with a sense of accomplishment that went far beyond the two victories they achieved on the ice.
The Firebirds spent time with the students at the DePaul School for Hearing and Speech, a school for speech and hearing impaired students in grades K-8. The institution focuses on teaching its students, among other things, how to use Cochlear implants.
The Firebirds made the trip as part of the Spiritan Immersion Program a community service initiative that is at the core of Holy Ghost Prep’s educational and spiritual mission.
The Holy Ghost Prep Firebirds
The hockey players spent time in the classroom and on the ice with the DePaul students. Senior Pat Slook talked about the experience.
“We got to walk around the school and meet some of the kids,” he said. “It’s a very small school, I believe there are less than 100 students.
“We were able to take them across street to the Hunt Armory where we played both our games and take them ice skating, which was a really cool experience for all the players.”
Slook embraces using his passion for hockey to give back.
“There’s a bunch of Spiritan programs that we do at Ghost but I think this is really cool one,” he said. “From the hockey aspect, as hockey players, we get to take them ice skating and we get to use the game as a connection because if you had been there you’d see how much fun the kids had going ice skating. It’s cool for everybody, it’s really fun for everybody and I really loved it.”
Holy Ghost Prep coach John Ritchie credited Ryan Abramson, the school’s director of admissions, for arranging the details of the trip.
“Our players really walked into a situation where they could kind of get the most out of it,” he said, “because all the other stuff has been taken care of for them.”
Ritchie marveled at how his student-athletes bonded with the DePaul students.
“Sometimes it can be uncomfortable, being around people that have disabilities,” he said, “and watching our guys interact with these young kids blew me away.
“These guys were skating with students at the school for 60 straight minutes and had smile on their faces. And the kids were getting to experience something that otherwise they might not get a chance to the fact that we kind of blend our sport while providing an opportunity for these students, and also a great learning opportunity for our guys. It was just overall a really, really great trip.”
For Ritchie, a special-education teacher himself, the trip hit close to home.”
“Absolutely,” he said. “I’ve been working in special education for the last 15 years.
“I’ve worked with special Olympics and the opportunity for Ghost to again blend these types of trips with the school mission is an opportunity that I’m glad these guys get a chance to do when their adolescents, where a lot of adults might not even have that opportunity. So, the fact they’re getting this experience now as high school students is super important for them as they continue to grow and develop as young men.”
Hockey Happenings 