Left to Right: Gavin, Jason, and Timmy More athletes with diabetes >

These Hockey Stars Share More Than Team Spirit Eight-year-olds Timmy, Jason, and Gavin have a lot in common. All three love ice hockey. All three started playing the game as toddlers and now are star players. All three live in New England. And all three have type 1 (juvenile) diabetes.

Timmy, Jason, and Gavin all play for the Providence Capitals—part of a Boston-area youth hockey league. None of them knew when they joined the team that they would have teammates who also had diabetes, but they were happy when they found out!

The three boys — and their parents — are often sharing tips for better managing diabetes. They even started seeing the same endocrinologist.

Jason's mom, Loriann, says that Jason, Timmy, and Gavin have become great role models to their teammates, friends, and even local parents. "They are the three leading players on their team," she says. Jason's Dad, Ray, agrees: "The responsibility that the diabetes puts on them forces them to be much more mature than their peers and even older kids, and they deal with it so well. We are really proud of them."

The players' families talked to us in February 2004.