St. Cloud sled hockey star’s
St. Cloud man’s gear displayed in Smithsonian
gear becomes part of historic Everyone Plays exhibit at the Smithsonian.
KISSIMMEE — Chris Douglas of St. Cloud was competing in a sled-hockey tournament in Washington, D.C., when players were asked to donate equipment.
When he got home, Douglas told his parents he had given a broken sled and sticks that had seen better days “to some museum exhibit,’’ his father, Scott, said. Douglas did not make a big deal out of it. He should have. Just like the presidency is not just some job, “The Godfather’’ is not just some movie and Facebook is not just some tech start-up, the Smithsonian Institution is not just some museum. Douglas’ equipment is on display through March 1 as part of the Everyone Plays exhibit on sports and disability at the National Museum of American History in the District of Columbia. The exhibit opened on Sept. 30. “All of my buddies on the team, they
were like, ‘Chris, you have stuff in the Smithsonian,’ ” said Douglas, a forward on Team USA’s sled-hockey team. “I’m like, ‘I don’t know. Do I?’ There was a link on social media. I looked at it, and I was like, ‘That was pretty awesome.’ ”
Douglas was born with spina bifida, was paralyzed temporarily after a failed surgery when he was 11 and only has been playing sled hockey since 2011. Before then, he said all he knew about hockey came from watching the movie “Happy Gilmore.’’
Douglas, 26, has a shot at representing the U.S. at the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
“He has no fear on the ice,’’ Team USA coach Jeff Sauer said. “Some of the guys who have been paralyzed or disabled from birth play with kind of an egg on their shoulders. Chris is not that type of player. Chris will stick his nose in, in every situation.’’
Scott Douglas, a cardiovascular technologist in Orlando, is not surprised.
“He is very stubborn, very determined,’’ Scott said. “At a young age, Linda [my wife] and I taught him the best we could that his life would be only as normal as he makes it.’’
That quest drove Chris Douglas from birth.
Spina bifida, a condition that occurs when a baby’s spine does not close completely, affects about 177,000 Americans. Kristi Wass of the Spina Bifida Association said the disability affects people in different ways. Some might experience only back pain, others might wear braces (as Douglas does below both knees) and others might be immobilized completely, Wass said.
Douglas, who had a couple of surgeries when he was younger, endured painful tingling in his calves when he was 10. The sensation kept him up at night. He underwent an MRI, then was told by doctors, “You have to have surgery within a week, or you are going to be in a wheelchair for the rest of your life.’’
That surgery did not go well.
“When I woke up, I couldn’t move my legs,’’ Douglas said. “My dad pulled the blanket up, tickled my feet and he said, ‘You can’t feel that?’ I’m like, ‘No.’’’
Said Scott Douglas: “That is difficult to even talk about. It’s pretty hard. It was very difficult emotionally. He was in the hospital for a fair amount of time.’’
Chris refused to accept a life of restriction, a life of limitations, a life confined to the sideline. Over that summer in 2001, he progressed from a wheelchair, then to a walker and to crutches, with the assistance of braces. Some feeling began to return after a few months, and he had about half of his feeling back by the time of a second surgery two weeks before 9-11.
“I have gained all my feeling back, all the way down to my toes, but I have not gained muscle function below the knee or anything that involves controlling the feet,’’ said Douglas, who has shoulder-length brown hair, a beard and a laid-back demeanor.
Always an athletic sort, Douglas tried football, tennis, volleyball, basketball and paintball. He was on the golf team at Harmony High School. Douglas raced trucks, cars and four-wheelers.
All of those endeavors were fine pastimes, but they did not grab Douglas’ competitive spirit quite like sled hockey. He was volunteering at a camp in Eustis in 2011 when a parent suggested that Douglas try this sport called “sledge hockey.’’
Douglas was intrigued instantly.
“You are able to go fast,’’ he said. “The cold breeze is blowing, and the smell of the ice and all that, it’s just a different experience than anything else I’ve ever done.’’
Inspiring others is not too bad, either.
“I pretty much learned the whole game of hockey just from meeting him,’’ said Harmony student Beau Corbett, a sled-hockey player who had part of his right leg amputated at 9 months old. “Before this, I never really had a sport to play. It has given me something to do, other than sit around and do nothing all the time.’’
Douglas (5-9, 150) has improved rapidly. In sled hockey, a player sits in a bucket on an aluminum sled only a few inches above the playing surface. He moves and changes directions with his sticks, which have picks on their ends.
A forward, Douglas attended his first USA Hockey player development camp in 2012 and was part of the past three gold-medal teams for the World Sled Hockey Challenge, including last month in Canada.
He is excited about the possibility of representing his country in South Korea next year.
“Whether I am going to work or not, everything I think about is [geared to] what is going to benefit me tomorrow or the next day or a week later to make it to the Paralympics,’’ Douglas said. “All the food. All the drinks. Whether I watch too much TV, or I sit down too long, whatever it is, it is just dedication.
“A girlfriend might want to hang out, but I am here [at the rink]. It is just nothing but sled hockey until I get a gold medal. I will not accept a silver medal.’’
Douglas struck gold with the Smithsonian.
The Everyone Plays exhibit consists of about six to 10 objects from various adaptive-sports athletes, said Jane Rogers, an associate curator at the Smithsonian. Rogers said the idea began when the museum received a monoski, and that led her to solicit donations for equipment from athletes with disabilities.
USA Hockey was one of the organizations she approached.
“Chris was the first one to basically answer my request, and he said he had this sled and these sticks that he could give,’’ Rogers said. “I just went from there.’’
Douglas’ contributions are treasured despite their tattered appearance. Duct tape holds a portion of the sled together near its front, the paint is chipped and the homemade bucket appears as if Douglas enjoys the physical aspects of the sport more than most.
The sticks look well-used, too.
They are part of the estimated 154 million objects on display at the 19 museums and galleries, plus the National Zoo, that comprise the Smithsonian complex. It took in roughly 30.2 million visitors last year.
Douglas was not one among them.
“I need to get up there and check it out before it is done,’’ Douglas said.
He should. His day at the museum awaits.