Flyers Warriors to host 2021 USA Hockey Warrior Classic

The Philadelphia Flyers Warriors are aiming for a hat trick this weekend when they host the 2021 USA Hockey Warrior Classic featuring 27 teams from across the United States spread across seven tiers based on playing ability. Each team consists of disabled men and women who are veterans or active members of the military.

Games will be played at Flyers Training Center in Voorhees, New Jersey, and Hollydell Ice Arena in Sewell, New Jersey from Nov. 5-7. The Flyers Warriors will have teams in Tier 1, Tier 4 and Tier 7. All games are open to the public and free to attend. The full schedule can be found
here
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Highlighting the first day of games Friday will be a Salute to Service game between the Flyers Warriors and the Colorado Warriors that will have a ceremonial puck drop with former Flyers John LeClair, Paul Holmgren and Mark Howe.
"We'll have 450 disabled vets plus or minus in town this weekend," said former Flyers defenseman Brad Marsh, who will coach the three Flyers Warriors teams that will play in the tournament. "So it's going to be a wonderful weekend. Lots of great hockey, and what's neat about it is the hockey is all at various levels of ability, from just learning to play the game to they think they're one step from the NHL."
The Flyers Warriors program was started with a joint $50,000 donation from the NHL and the Philadelphia Flyers in February 2019 as part of the NHL Stadium Series legacy project.
The growth since then has been exponential.
"It seemed like every week a new face was showing up, one or two faces, really," said Tim Wynn, a forward who has been with the Flyers Warriors since its inception. "We've kind of hit a point now where everybody knows about us. We're still getting people, but I would say for the first sort of 24 months of this thing, we just constantly had people showing up. And they stayed, which is the most important thing."
The support from the Flyers also has been important. Marsh and fellow Flyers alum Bob Kelly coach the team, it's practiced at Wells Fargo Center and wears the Flyers logo on its uniforms.
"The No. 1 thing that we ... stressed right from the get-go, when we started the team, we were in the Flyers dressing room," Marsh said. "I said welcome to the team, you're now part of the Flyers organization. Every player to a T takes their representation of the Philadelphia Flyers organization, the Philadelphia Flyers Alumni organization, very seriously and they act accordingly."
Wynn said that serious approach is why the Flyers Warriors have grown and succeeded.
"I think internally, within the program, it's such a success because in a way it's quasi-military," he said. "We run it like the military and we're familiar with that. Our team captains are in a sense what we used to know as squad leaders in the military, so it just works. We know how to do this. We know how to be a group together and function together. It's just special. It takes us back to the time we once had in the military."
Marsh said as much as the on-ice play has grown since 2019, it's that off-ice experience for the players that's been the most important part of the Flyers Warriors.
"There was a certain bond when these players were deployed, and now they have a certain bond," he said. "It's a little different but the bond is still there. Now they're sharing the dressing room. The wives are a wonderful group. They also have their own little group that gets together on a very, very regular basis. And now the wives also have a bond that they can share with other wives.
"And then you take that one step further is the kids. We'll have a tailgate party after practice or after a game and before you know it, there's five, six barbecues set up, there's tents set up, there's parking lot games set up, there's playpens there, the kids are running around, kids know each other. There's birthday parties, there's weddings, there's babies being born. It's just really what we created. We're just using hockey to improve a situation."
Wynn hopes the Flyers Warriors hosting the 2021 Warrior Classic is more than a one-time happening.
"This has always been our goal, to host a big tournament," he said. "And to host not only a big tournament, but the best tournament. I don't think moving forward that USA Hockey or the players, the over 400 players that come here, are going to want to go anywhere else after this. I think we've done it that well."