About Us

Yellowknife Sledge Hockey is a non-profit organization that gives people in Yellowknife, Canada an opportunity to play sledge hockey. Yellowknife Sledge Hockey was officially established on March 7, 2018. The estimated population of Yellowknife is 18,234 and we currently have 24 sledges along with a pair of sticks for each sledge and one goalie stick. It first started when Riley Oldford met the 2011-2012 Team Canada Sledge Hockey team when they came to Yellowknife for a training camp in November 2011. They no longer do training camps in different locations across Canada, and always hold them in Calgary, Alberta at the Winsport, or in Toronto, Ontario. After the 5 day long training camp, they had a 2 hour Try a Sledge event. Riley had watched them practice each day after school, and on Saturday he tried a sledge for the first time. He stayed out for the full 2 hours while everybody else were only allowed to stay on for 15 minutes. At the time Riley was 6 years old. As soon as Riley got off, him and his parents talked to the Team Canada equipment manager to see where to get a sledge. After a little while of playing, for Riley's birthday party, he asked for money to go towards a sledge so him and a friend could skate together. And the rest is pretty much history!

History

At the end of March, every year, there is a Western Canada Sledge Hockey Tournament. Riley got invited by the Calgary Venom, Calgary's junior sledge hockey team, to play with them as they where looking for players. Every year since, Riley has played with the Calgary Venom for that tournament. His parents Craig and Sharon Oldford then both got sledges for themselves. After that, every few months, they would order a couple more sledges, and a couple more pairs of stick through money donated by local companies. If you want to learn more about sponsors or donations, go to the Sponsors or Donations pages respectively.

After playing with the Calgary Venom, and going to multiple public skates at the local rink, Sharon asked if Riley was able to play in the YKMHA. They gave it a green light and he became the first known sledge hockey player to play in a minor hockey league. Then in the winter of 2016, on Hockey Day of Canada, Yellowknife, NT was a satellite site for Sportsnet. Riley asked a few questions to the camera person on site, and then the he asked Riley a questions. "Is your brother or sister playing or are you just here to watch your friends?". Riley and his Mom then explained all we have explained to you. They asked if Riley would be okay on television because they wanted to do a story on him. Later that day they took video of him, and about a month later they published a video clip, and put the story on TV called "Riley Oldford won't let his disability stop his passion for hockey" by Irfaan Gaffer. Before this point, Riley had only played sledge hockey in Yellowknife with other sledges through NJ MacPherson School, the school his Mom, Sharon, works for during the school day. But in the beginning of the 2016-2017 season, everything changed. The YKMHA had ice time that they offered to the group they had formed and from then on, almost every Saturday during the hockey season, they would practice, and then play a scrimmage on there 13 sledges they had. Some of the money had been donated by Ragged Ass Barber, and then the Northern Union because Craig, Riley's Dad had gone to a meeting to present the idea. During spring, 2017, they applied for a grant through Canadian Tire, and the Canadian Paralympic Association that, if won, would pay for up to 8 sledges with sticks and shipping, along with a goalie stick and for 2 Canadian Sledge Hockey Paralympians, and the head coach of the Women's Team Canada Sledge Hockey team to come to Yellowknife for a weekend, although the 2 Paralympians would not be able to come at the same time if won. In May 2017, it was announced to the public that they had got the grant, and that more sledges would be on the way. In July, 2017, we started a wix.com website, but it would not work properly and show up on https://www.google.com. We than finally created the website you look at today right now that does show up on Google. The official website of Yellowknife Sledge Hockey and the Yellowknife SledDogs. On November 23, 2017, Tyler McGregor came to Yellowknife for a Sledge Hockey Mini-Camp. A week later, a CBC The National crew, with David Common came to Yellowknife to make a 5 minute, 30 second video to go on TV and YouTube, along with a news article. The video was published on December 29, 2017, and the article on December 31, 2017. In December 2017, ICE Electric donated enough money to buy 2 sledges, making us have 24 sledges. Social Media wisem we have had a Facebook account since November 2017, a Twitter account since December 2017, and a Instagram account since January 1st, 2018. And that is about all, thank you for reading, and visiting our website and hey, #buttdownplaysledge! - The team at Yellowknife Sledge Hockey