Debilitated by spinal muscular atrophy, Jonathan Greeson has never known what it is like to walk. “I’ve been in a wheelchair since I was one or two years old probably,” Greeson said. While there are many outlets for those in wheelchairs to compete athletically, for people like Greeson, who are unable to use manual wheelchairs in daily life, there are very few options.

For this reason, Greeson created the North Carolina Electric Wheelchair Hockey Association during his senior year at N.C. State in 2003. He said the purpose of the organization was to create a quality hockey program for people with similar disabilities.Click here for photo slideshow…

“Our main mission is to provide a quality hockey program for people who use electric wheelchairs in their daily life,” Greeson said. “A person like me in a power chair, I don’t have the strength to use a manual chair, so I can’t participate in those sports, and this provides an outlet for a guy like me to have something to play.”

In addition to the NCEWHA, Greeson also created the Carolina Fury, a team that would compete against other electric wheelchair, or PowerHockey, teams and would contend for the PowerHockey Cup. Every two years, the United States Electric Wheelchair Hockey Association holds the event, which is the national championship of the sport.

However, the Fury will not be attending the event in August, 2008. It has been a hard year for the team. Greeson, hospitalized for pneumonia in February, was in intensive care for 44 days before finally being released. In June, team member Dalton Wallace, age 10, passed away from illness. Greeson said it would have been too difficult to travel to the event in Minnesota under the circumstances.

“It’s just too much emotionally right now to travel,” Greeson said. “We were supposed to go to Minnesota in August.”

The Fury hosted the Carolina Hurricanes front office staff for a fundraiser exhibition game on Saturday in Pikeville, N.C., the Fury’s hometown.

The game went into overtime after both teams notched six goals in regulation. The Fury finally took the contest scoring with just less than a minute left in overtime. Greeson said a lot of PowerHockey teams are not as intense as the Fury, but he believes a hockey program ought to be serious regardless of the circumstances.

“We have a good time, but we’re also very competitive,” Greeson said. “It’s as serious as the NHL is to us. Several groups like this are not really competitive, but we are.”

Although the focus of the organization is about athletic competition, Greeson said it is nice to be able to interact with people who are going through the same troubles.

“It’s definitely taught us a lot about each other,” Greeson said. “It’s nice to have people to know what you’re going through. They’re somebody to talk to if something happens. A lot of the older players have already been through what you could be going through, and they could kind of help you out. It just makes it a little easier I think.”