Gateway Special Hockey, Inc dba Gateway Locomotives
The idea for GSH came from Tony Sansone, Jr. who, in 1993, read an article while traveling about an organized ice hockey program for developmentally challenged youth and young adults in the Toronto, Ontario Canada area called Grandravine Special Hockey or the Grandravine Tornadoes led by Pat and Joan Flick. Pat and Joan organized their special pr
ogram 12 years earlier when Pat noticed developmentally challenged siblings of players he was coaching who were just hanging around the rink. Not having a place to play organized hockey, Pat and Joan started their program. Tony contacted Pat and discussed the idea of starting a similar program here in St. Pat was welcome and encouraging to the idea and Tony began to solicit friends and teammates to help coach this team. One of the difficulties in starting such a program was finding available ice for practice. Kelly Chase stepped in and offered to host a Blues' players sponsored hockey school at the Brentwood Ice Rink in the Summer. Chaser donated the profits from these schools to the Locomotives for icetime and approached the rink management (Brentwood is where the Blues practiced at the time) to make ice available for the Locomotives. Louis and joined the Locomotives for their inaugural practice on Monday, January 31,1994 at the Brentwood Ice Rink. We hit the ice with 17 athletes mostly from St. Mary's School for developmentally challenged young adults and approximately 12 coaches. The Locomotives were very successful and decided to host the first ever tournament between two separate clubs of developmentally challenged athletes over Thanksgiving weekend 1994 when the Grandravine Tornadoes came to St. This tournament is recognized by memorabilia in the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Canada. In February of 1995 the Locomotives traveled to Toronto to challenge the Grandravine Tornadoes to a re-match playing at the local ice rink in Parry Sound, Ontario. It was an outstanding weekend with the special athletes telling their parents it was the best weekend of their entire lives. St. Louis again hosted a tournament in 1995 with the teams now expanded to include The New York Raptors and the Durham Dragons. In 1996, St. Louis hosted the tournament now called the SHI Tournament or Special Hockey International, “The Heart League”. In 1996, team representatives from Canadian clubs, the Grandravine Tornadoes, the Durham Dragons, and the Ottawa Ambassadors along with USA clubs, the Gateway Locomotives, the New York Raptors, and the Colorado Golden Eagles met to formally launch a league to provide competition and organization for special athletes across the border countries. The name of the league is Special Hockey International or “The Heart League”. Louis hosted the first ever SHI Tournament over the Thanksgiving weekend in 1996 with 6 teams competing. Emphasis on these tournaments and competition play is focused not on the won/loss record, but on team play and participation by all athletes regardless of skills and abilities. USA Hockey rules were adopted with modification of no offsides and no icing for either side. It was an awesome tournament. The SHI Tournament was hosted by the New York Raptors in 1997 and by the Ottawa Ambassadors in 1998. The year 1999 was skipped in order to move the tournament from the Fall (Thanksgiving weekend) to the Spring of 2000. The first Spring tournament was hosted by the Colorado Golden Eagles in Denver, Colorado. Since then, each country has taken turns hosting the tournaments alternating between USA and Canada predominately in the Toronto area. The Locomotives have participated in Tournaments in Toronto area, (several times), - White Plains, NY – Ottawa, Canada - Denver, CO - Albany, NY - Washington, DC - Boston, MA - Arlington, VA Chicago, IL - Philadelphia, PA - Dallas, TX - Detroit, MI - Buffalo, NY - and Minneapolis, MN
Since there are no other special hockey teams in the St. Louis area, our only opportunity to compete against other teams of special athletes is to travel to these tournaments. Our closest competitors are the Chicago Tomahawks and the Colorado Golden Eagles. In 2003 The Locomotives were invited to participate in an exhibition with the Washington Ice Dogs for USA Hockey representatives at the USA Hockey Bantam Tier I National Championships in Laurel, Maryland. The USA Hockey representatives were so impressed, that a new division called Special Hockey was created and they added a board member to the USA Hockey Board of Directors. USA Hockey, Inc. invited special hockey teams to the first ever National Disabled Hockey Festival held in Detroit, MI in April of 2004. A new organization, American Special Hockey Association, was formed to represent all USA teams of special needs hockey teams in the United States. In 2011, there were 50 clubs in 30 states with close to 1,000 athletes of special hockey players registered with USA Hockey, Inc. Gateway Special Hockey, Inc. was organized as a not for profit 501(c)(3) organization in 1994 and subsist by donations and fundraisers alone. There are no paid staff in the organization and 100% of donations goes directly to the benefit of the special athletes .
