April is Autism Awareness Month, and a local hockey team is defying expectations.

The New York Raptors is the first hockey team in the state of New York to include players all with developmental disorders, like autism or Down syndrome.

All athletes, no matter their abilities, get to enjoy the thrill of flying around the rink.

The team practices at the Westchester Skating Academy in Elmsford.

"His first game, we saw him out on the ice at Nassau Coliseum," said Steve Grossman, whose son Michael was diagnosed with autism just shy of his second birthday. " There's his name on the back of a jersey, something we'd never thought we would see because of the challenges that he faces."