‘Wheelchairs give independence’: Inside the sport of powerhockey and the Flyers’ affiliated team

In 2006, Hisham Mohammed’s home was hit by a bomb during the Iraq War, which left him paralyzed from the neck down. He was 8 years old.

Mohammed spent 54 days in intensive care in his native Iraq before his family moved to Jordan. The family then came to Philadelphia in 2008.

He had been an active child and feared he would never play sports again. But then he found powerhockey.

Mohammed and his father, Abdul Ibrahim, discovered the Flyers PowerPlay, a power wheelchair hockey team, when he was in seventh grade, and Mohammed has been playing on the team since.

“I’m grateful to have been part of this team. It really has been one of the biggest blessings of my life,” said Mohammed, a graduate of Upper Merion High School. “I thought that there was no sport that I could play after my injury. So it’s a challenge. [I have] limitations [because of paralysis in his arms], but at the same time, other people are able to do it, and so can I.”

Now, as the team prepares to host the Powerhockey Cup from Friday through Monday at Neumann University, Mohammed and his teammates say powerhockey and the connections they make through it are important as ever.

“I love the connections we make with other teams,” Mohammed said. “They’re very nice people.”

The tournament will feature teams from Michigan, Ottawa, and Toronto. The event used to include teams from North Carolina, Minnesota, and Calgary as well, but they folded during the pandemic as teams were unable to regain full rosters. This will be the first Powerhockey Cup since 2018.

The Flyers PowerPlay team is open to ages 10 and up and has 24 players. Most players have muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, or spinal cord injuries, and all players must use a power wheelchair. Powerhockey typically is played on a basketball court with plastic hockey sticks and a plastic ball, and sticks can be modified with dowels to help guide the ball.

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Michele Boardman, who lives in Telford, is 39 and started playing powerhockey while attending a muscular dystrophy camp with Pat Hilferty. A wheelchair hockey player who died at age 32 in 2017, Hilferty founded the PowerPlay organization in 2003 and encouraged Boardman to join the Flyers team in 2012.

“I thought it was the coolest thing because you could play independently,” Boardman said. “You didn’t need anybody to help you. You attach a stick to a chair, and you’re off and running.

“It’s wonderful just to be part of a group that gets it, understands what we’re going through. Being able to play in your wheelchair is so important. Nobody is confined to a wheelchair. Wheelchairs give independence. They give mobility. They give freedom and the ability to move around.”

There are three levels of players in powerhockey. Level 1 players have upper-body mobility, the biggest advantage being that they can reach behind their chairs with their stick. Level 2 is the broadest category, as players may have limited arm movement. A Level 3 player most likely cannot hold their own stick, so a large, flat one is attached to the side of the player’s chair.

During games, a team must have at least one Level 3 player and can have only one Level 1 player on the floor at a time.

Boardman is a Level 3 defensive player and the chairperson of the fundraising committee. She was named 2025 player of the year and believes it’s partially because of her leadership contributions off the floor.

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“We’re a nonprofit, 501(c)(3), and the only way we keep our organization running is through donations,” Boardman said. “We’ve raised quite a bit of money this year, so that’s been really helpful to be able to host the tournament. Tournaments are very expensive.”

Some players have familial ties to hockey, like AJ Rinker, 29, from Elverson, whose younger sister, Ava, was drafted by the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s Minnesota Frost in June, and Jake Saxton, 22, and Liam Miller, 27, whose fathers are the team’s coaches.

Gary Saxton has been coaching the team for 15 years. They live in Solebury and Gary said he coached Jake in the driveway growing up and saw his confidence grow, so the father watched film of other teams to learn how to coach the sport.

“We didn’t know what [Jake’s] future was with a neuromuscular disease, didn’t know if he was going to survive past the age of 10,” Gary Saxton said. “I got him involved with powerhockey at the age of 7, so he’s been playing for a long time. It didn’t come naturally — he’s worked tremendously hard to get where he is, and it’s made him who he is today.”

In September 2017, the Flyers adopted the PowerPlay as the first powerhockey team to form a partnership with an NHL franchise. As an affiliate, and through events like the Abilities Expo, the team has been able to reach more participants.

“Like any other kid that grows up, they need to find passion and something that gives them confidence,” Gary Saxton said. “This does that. I think hockey has given a lot of these players that sense of togetherness. They’re all in the same situation.”