November 9, 2017 at 12:17 p.m.
Finding a purpose
Seven wounded military veterans get a second chance on national sled hockey team
Finding a purpose
Those men and women are often heralded for their sacrifice. We are quick to praise and express our sympathy for those wounded in combat, but what happens when the fanfare goes away and they must begin to resume a normal life, a life that is not quite the same as the one lived before entering the military?
Seven veterans, all of whom lost limbs during military service, have found a way to get back to normalcy and they have done so through athletics.
A different type of representing
Those seven veterans have parlayed their new athletic endeavors into the opportunity to once again represent the United States, this time as members of the U.S. national sled hockey team in the 2018 Paralympics in PyeongChang, South Korea in March.
Not only are these men moving toward normalcy, they are doing so as world-class athletes for the top sled hockey team in the world.
It has provided them a chance to reconnect and regain the brotherhood from the time served in the military.
One of the veterans, Luke McDermott of Westerlo, N.Y., joined the Marine Corps on Sept. 11, 2006. on June 10, 2010, he was on his second tour with the 1st Battalion, 6th Marines in Afghanistan when his vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device (IED). He lost his right leg below the knee on impact. His left leg was amputated below the knee when rehabilitation efforts became futile.
Introduced to sled hockey in 2010 while rehabilitating at the Center for the Intrepid, McDermott became a member of the San Antonio Rampage, an all-vet sled hockey team.
It helped McDermott regain the sense of brotherhood and belonging to a team that was thought to have disappeared after his injury. Not only did McDermott make the U.S. team in 2015, he also earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Texas Christian University in 2014.
"I definitely think it was a huge factor," McDermott said. "When you're in the military, you're living with the guys you're working with - that you're deployed with - every day. You see them every day. You're with them eight, 10, sometimes 24 hours per day for weeks on end. That's your life, is to live and train with them. You go from that huge team aspect of being in the military to doing your own individual rehab, so getting back into the locker room, especially with the guys on the Rampage, with guys who have gone through similar things that I was going through, just helped out a lot. Just being back in that team aspect together, working toward that common goal, while doing it with guys who have been through the same thing."
While some use the sport as a way to regain camaraderie, others have used it as a mental cleansing.
Buffalo, N.Y. native Paul Schaus was a talented youth hockey player who joined the Marines in 2006 at the age of 17.
By the age of 20, Schaus was midway through his second six-month tour overseas, the first coming in Iraq, and the second in Afghanistan, when he stepped on IED, costing him both legs above the knee and a finger.
Schaus received a Purple Heart and did his rehabilitation at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, but needed to find his way back into the real world.
"I was in pretty good physical shape. I was only 20 when I got hurt so I had the physical stuff down," Schaus said. "Mentally, I definitely had trouble just getting out of my room, trying to get out there and give it a shot again to meet new people and start this whole new life that I had to start. Hockey was really the only thing that made me want to get out of the room and made me want to look forward to something every week. The doctors saved me physically, but sled hockey saved me mentally."
Schaus was one three veterans who helped the U.S. become the first sled hockey team to win back-to-back gold medals at the 2014 Paralympics in Sochi, Russia. All three played on the same line - dubbed the Military Line.
The second of that Paralympic trio, Josh Sweeney earned the first annual Pat Tillman Award at the 2014 ESPYs and retired after captaining the team to gold in the 2015 World Championships, but the third member, Rico Roman, remains.
Roman, born in Portland, Ore., joined the U.S. Army in 2001 and was deployed to Iraq three times between 2003 and 2007. In the final deployment, Roman stepped on an IED and suffered injuries to both legs, but only his left leg was amputated.
Roman was introduced to a variety of sports through Operation Comfort, which assists injured U.S. service members at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, before he finally gave sled hockey a chance.
Like McDermott and Sweeney, Roman also played for the Rampage. Being around the other veterans helped him continue the sport even though it took him time to reach an elite level.
"It gave me a driving purpose and those guys pushed me to be on a better level," Roman said. "Having such a great group of guys day-in and day-out. I feel like I was blessed to be with an amazing group of guys and a great team."
Second chances
Second chances don't happen often in life, and while many of the veterans used sled hockey as a way to rehab physically and emotionally, those like Josh Misiewicz of La Grange, Ill., used it as a way to resume playing hockey at an elite level.
Misiewicz played two seasons Division III St. Mary's in Winona, Minn, before enlisting in the Marines.
While serving in the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines as a machine gunner, Misiewicz was on foot patrol in Afghanistan when an IED cost him both of his legs above the knee, seemingly whisking away his hockey career.
Not only is Misiewicz still playing, but he is actually playing at a higher level than he did before his injury.
"Even starting out playing sled hockey, I didn't know where it could take you," Misiewicz said. "Club hockey is club hockey, where everyone chases the puck. When you get to this, positioning matters, you have to learn, you have to study, you have to know the game and I just missed that aspect."
Sled hockey has allowed some of the veterans to pursue something they might never have tried.
Travis Dodson lives in Champaign, Ill., but grew up New Mexico, which is not exactly a hockey haven.
After serving in the Marines in Iraq, he lost both legs after a grenade was tossed into a second-story room in 2007.
Dodson wasn't much for competitive sports - aside from golf - before joining the Marines, but since his injury, he has become a world class athlete.
While participating in the 2014 Paralympics in Nordic skiing, Dodson saw a hockey game and decided that was the sport he needed to play. Now he is just five months away from going to his second Paralympics in a second sport.
"I never even thought this was a possibility at all," Dodson said.
Perhaps the most unique aspect of entering the world of disabled sports is a lack of sympathy.
Certainly there is sympathy for how it happened, but someone who is already disabled and has been for their entire life, there isn't going to be any sympathy for being disabled.
You have to learn to sink or swim. Enter a sled hockey locker room and nobody is going to feel sorry for the predicament you're in. It's life and you have to learn to live with it.
That sentiment is something that backup goaltender Jen Lee learned after losing his left leg in a motorcycle accident in 2009 while serving as a sergeant in the U.S. Army.
"Being in the military, when you start in basic training, you pretty much have to carry your own weight," Lee said. "That mentality kind of carries after being injured, because of the fact. If you don't your job and you're not squared away then people can say, 'Pick up the slack or there will be punishment.' Being disabled - I'm not saying it's the same - but you have to have that strong mentality. You have to say, 'Everyone else in this rehab center doing physical therapy are in the same boat as you or even worse. You can't just say, 'Hey, I can't get up today because my leg hurts.' That was definitely the steppingstone for me to transition to that and carry that, because I didn't want to make myself look bad in front of the guys doing the rehab."
In March, the seven military veterans have a chance to lead the United States - coached by Grafton's Guy Gosselin - to an unprecedented third consecutive gold medal.
Nick Sabato may be reached at [email protected] or via Twitter @SabatoNick.
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