Craig Fitzpatrick

I've got a fairly complete peripheral field where I do still have some vision.

So I use my vision on the ice to the extent that it can help me.

And then every other sense is also completely alive while I'm on the ice playing blind hockey.

And the ability to use my senses at their peak like that helps me in every aspect of my life off the ice.

For those that have never heard of blind hockey before, it's regulation hockey with three main adaptations.

We have a metal puck that makes really loud noise while we play that on the ice.

The goalies have to be completely blind.

And for that reason, the nets are a foot shorter than regulation nets.

And then the attacking team has to complete one clean pass inside of the offensive zone past the blue line before they can score a goal.

Other than that, it's regulation hockey.

It's played at probably 90% of the speed of NHL hockey at its highest level, which is the Blind Hockey League.

And it's extremely entertaining to watch if you can see it or to follow it live at a game even if you can't see it.

It's a heck of an experience.

My wife, Jenny, became pregnant with our first kid in the spring of 2023.

And at the time, I was 46 years old.

I didn't know at that age in my life if I would get a chance to be a dad, but it was really important to me that if I was given the chance that I do it right.

I lost my own dad to a heart attack when I was 10 years old.

And there wasn't a lot that I had from him that I could use to remember him by as I got older.

And I've always kind of had this longing for what was he like as a man, especially as I grew up and even on top of that as I'm becoming a dad myself.

So I started sitting down to write some stories that I could tell to my son someday.