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Picture of Polars and Monarchs

Polars Square Off With Monarchs

By Deke Dangler, 12/21/12, 6:45AM CST

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Floor Hockey with the Maplewood Special Olympic Team

The Polar Boys Hockey Team renewed aquaintances with the Maplewood Monarchs on December 19th. The Monarchs are the local Special Olympics program and have made connections with the Polar boys over the past decade.

Donna Diebel organized the Monarchs so athletes who had participated in Adaptive Sports in high school had a local program to be a part of when that experience was over. Besides having two kids playing on the Monarchs, Mrs. Diebel also had a son who was the head coach of the Polar hockey team. Over the years Coach Diebel had encouraged adaptive eligible students to join a high school team. Often that encouragement led to kids participating on a team in which his father helped to coach.

One of those adaptive / Monarch players was also a student manager for the Polars. In 2006 Matt "Spanky" Schulke suggested the Polars and the Monarchs play a little floor hockey. About a dozen of the Polars went to a Monarch practice and scrimmaged the Monarchs. When the players came to practice the next day and told everyone how much fun they had, more players could not wait until next year.

This year's Polar squad included all of the Varsity, JV players and coaches. The Monarchs featured Matt Schulke who is still helping the Polars as is another Monarch player, Tony Diebel, Coach Diebel's brother. The game was high spirited and the final score is in dispute. The night left both teams looking forward to next year.