USA Hockey Adult Hockey

Foster Watabe got an interesting intra-office email one day last March.

New Vivint employee Patrick Chavira-Johnson had heard the company had a team that played in the Peaks Adult Hockey League in Provo, Utah, and he was interested in playing. His co-worker Watabe just happened to be a team member and league director as well.

Watabe was happy to welcome Chavira-Johnson to the Vivint hockey team. The two hadn’t met at work before, since Vivint is a fairly large company, so they finally crossed paths before Chavira-Johnson’s first game.

“He was getting ready in the locker room and I go to shake his hand, and he gives me his left hand. I thought that was kind of weird,” Watabe said. “I didn’t really notice because he was tucking in his jersey with his other arm and I thought, ‘My goodness, this guy’s only got one arm.’ He’s amazing.”

The Vivint hockey team already had an interesting dynamic with a deaf player, Tyler Carn, lacing up his skates. Adding Chavira-Johnson made the team that much more diverse.

On the ice, however, the players all view themselves as equal.

“We tell them we need goals from them just as much as anybody else,” Watabe said.

Chavira-Johnson — who was born with a partial right arm with just a couple inches below the elbow — is skilled at hockey. Raised in San Diego, where roller hockey is big and ice isn’t readily available, he started playing roller hockey at 8 and competed in high school and on traveling teams. He picked up ice hockey in 2012 and played on a couple adult hockey teams.

“I grew up playing, so I never thought it was too difficult,” he said. “I found kind of a natural way to hold the stick for myself. Stick-handling hasn’t been an issue.”

When he moved to Provo for work, Chavira-Johnson was eager to find a team to play on. He calls himself an offensive-minded defenseman and loves to be around the puck.

“He can move the puck really well, amazingly,” Watabe said. “I’ve even had players tell me, ‘I went to go stick check this guy and I thought it was going to be a walk in the park because he’s only got one hand, but he’s strong.’ He’s got a really good shot.”

Carn — who lost his hearing at birth when the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck — has been playing with the Vivint team for a couple years. He wears hearing aids and can read lips really well, but once he’s on the ice he struggles to hear the referee blow the whistle.

“Whenever we get out there we tell [the referees], ‘Make sure you blow your whistle loud because we have a guy that’s deaf on our team,’” Watabe said.

When Carn is in the heat of the action, he can get away with a few more things than other players.

“He’ll go ahead and take shots after the whistle has blown, and he’ll be cruising in on an offsides,” Watabe said. “The referee will be dragging him off to the penalty box and we are like, ‘No, no, no. That’s the guy that’s deaf.’”

There are 18 teams that compete in three divisions in the Peaks Adult Hockey League. Vivint is one of eight teams in the C Division, which is more for beginners and development and is pretty low key.

“It’s just a regular men’s league,” Watabe said. “Guys want to come out, get some exercise.”

Vivint is comprised of about 15 players, with over half who work for the company that deals with security and home automation. There is a wide range of skill sets on the Vivint team.

“We always play for fun and not really to win,” Watabe said. “It’s always a good time with those guys.”

After playing roller hockey for most of his life, Chavira-Johnson really loves to get out on the ice.

“I love watching playing hockey and watching hockey,” Chavira-Johnson said. “It’s fun just getting out there and hanging out with friends and cool guys.”

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.