After being seen off at the Alder Street arena by Orangeville Mayor Rob Adams and Sylvia Jones on behalf of MPP John Tory, the Orangeville Wolves boarded a bus to Arlington, Virginia for the 16th annual Special Hockey International tournament.

Leading the contingent to the tournament was president and founder Dan Stone, head coach Martin Porteous, manager Doug Harkness, treasurer John Fitzpatrick, assistant coaches Chuck Hardy, Wayne Dunster, and Jim Porteous as well as equipment manager Shawn Chalmers.

The Wolves is a hockey team for developmentally challenged male and female of any age.

The annual tournament culminates the Wolves 7th season where the team also played a 16 game home and away schedule.

Fun, team building, and skill development are emphasized over winning and scores are not kept during the games.

The Arlington tournament featured 38 teams from across North America as well as one from England.

The Wolves played in the B division which was set up for teams of mixed skill level and played games against Colorado, St. Louis, and New Jersey.

In the New Jersey game Alfie Brown opened the scoring with assists going to Michael McCreary and Adam Thompson. McCreary played great all weekend setting up his team-mates for goals on several occasions.

The Wolves Travis Grist picked up the second goal of the game with helpers going to Drew Irwin and Thompson. It was followed up by a nice goal by Thompson with Irwin picking up the loan assist.

Irwin then scored one of his own with Travis Hyatt and Dougie Myers picking up the assists.

The hard working Myers then scored on the same shift with Kelly Hu Dong and Darren Johnston getting the assists. Grist then scored from Hu Dong and Noah Brown before completing the hat-trick from James Mastine and TJ Walton.

Vini Thomas closed out the scoring with a hard wrist shot from the slot, Jason Armstrong picked up the loan assist.

Adam Brown played a strong game between the pipes for the first period and a half before having to leave with a lower body injury. Frankie Spagnolo was the emergency replacement making a memorable save sliding post to post in the third period.

Tim Zwicker was the big goal scorer for the Wolves in the St. Louis game picking up a natural hat-trick in the second period.

Drew Irwin and Frankie Spagnolo each had a pair for the Wolves with TJ Walton closing out the scoring.

Assists in the game went to McCreary with a pair, Noah Brown with two, Thompson with a pair, Hyatt with two, and Irwin, Mathew Ingram, Hu Dong, Johnson, Alfie Brown, Joshua Sibley, Myers, Walton, and Scottie Van Gerven each had singles. Travis Grist played a stellar game between the pipes.

Craig Stellick didn't tally on a goal but skated hard whenever he was on the ice.

The team had plenty of free time and was able to visit the Washington Mall and Arlington National Cemetery.

There was quite a stir when a small group from the team was not able to get close enough to the White House to see it only to have an Air Force helicopter roar overhead onto the front lawn.

It was in stark contrast when the team visited London the year before and some team members were able to shake hands with Tony Blair on a London sidewalk.

The tournament closed with a unique banquet where the Wolves received top honours in the musical chairs competition at the banquet.

Each player also received a very nice medal for participating in the tournament.

The team returned home after a memorable bus ride and is already looking forward to next season.

The Wolves year-end banquet is on Sunday May 6th from 3-6 at Tony Rose Recreation Centre. Anyone interested in playing for the Wolves next year should call Dan Stone at 519-941-3762.