Joe Chavez has become a community legend for his leadership on disability issues and his play for the U.S. Paralympic Soccer Team. Now the influential SWC student has a new motto: “Put your disability on ice.”
Chavez has switched from soccer to sled hockey and is now the goalie for the San Diego Ducks, an affiliate of the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks. Chavez and the Ducks took on their Phoenix counterparts, the Coyotes, for a three-game series at the UTC Westfield Ice Sports Center in La Jolla.
Phoenix, the more experienced squad, swept the series with puck control and pressure on net, taking each game by four goals or more. They left town with plenty of bruises, though, from a scrappy Duck squad that took out their frustrations on the yelping Coyotes.
Ducks head coach Pete Bellen said it was the debut for many of his players and he was proud of their progress.
“We’re glad that they were able to come in and have some fun with us,” he said. “Yeah they beat us up, but that’s OK, we learn that way.”
Bellen said the standard of play is high.
“This isn’t a house league hockey… this is full check,” he said. “We’ve evolved from a c-team, now to a b-team, then an a-team to make a run at a national championship one day. That’s what we are trying to do.”
Sled hockey is nearly identical to traditional stand-up hockey and anyone can play. Players are strapped into a sled and given two hockey sticks with serrated ice picks on one end to propel forward and traditional hockey blades on the other end are used to control the puck.
In game one Chavez was solid in net, stopping 18 of 22 shots, despite facing a constant barrage of pucks.
Chavez, who was born with cerebral palsy, said he encourages people to pick up a hockey stick, hop in a sled and join him in action.
“I’ve come up with another message that I go by,” he said. “Put your disability on ice, come have fun. That’s what I’m doing.”
Chavez even has his father, John, out on the ice, watching his back.
John Hamilton, a seven-year Coyote veteran, said the team really took off two years ago when the some alumni donated new equipment.
“We were losing a lot of guys because we didn’t have enough sleds,” he said. “I used to play hockey until I was 18, so to get back on the ice, smell the fresh air, it’s just an amazing experience.”
While the Coyotes have been around for a decade, the Ducks are in their first year. Sarah Bettencourt, who was medically discharged from U. S. Marine Corps, founded the Ducks after seeing sled hockey at a ski camp. In one year she has transformed her dream of a sled hockey team in San Diego into a reality.
“I had nothing, no team sports, no group activities that I had thrived on in the Marine Corps,” she said. “I was looking for something that wasn’t ‘Oh woe is me, I’m a disabled person, please help me.’ That’s not what we’re about. I fell in love with it up at the camp and when I came home, didn’t find sled hockey here so I went and started a program. A lot of people don’t know about sled hockey, let alone standing amputee hockey, deaf, hard of hearing or blind hockey.”
Bettencourt was not the only Marine attracted to the Ducks.
Star winger Hans Blum is a USMC veteran who was injured in Afghanistan in 2012.
Blum started playing sled hockey with the USA Warriors before he found the Ducks.
Forward Wesley Barrientos said he enjoyed the finer points of hockey, like knocking a guy flat onto the ice or into a wall.
“I was born in Guatemala,” he said. “I am a tropical guy, so being on the ice and being able to hit people after my injury, ah, I love it.”
Looking ahead, coach Bellen said the Ducks have a lot of big games being planned, including a March rematch with Coyotes in Phoenix. They also have planned an international match with an Austrian team, a tournament in Los Angeles with South Korean teams and a matchup against the L.A. Kings Sled Hockey.
All while playing against local high school stand-up hockey teams to keep getting better and bring awareness to the sport.
Barrientos said he is looking forward to each and every one.
“I love contact sports, so to be able to do it again and do it legally, it just made my day and it feels like I’m alive again.”
