BUFFALO, N.Y. – How to best describe an elite hockey player? Qualities such as self-sacrificing, driven and focused are a good place to begin.

Those same elements are to be found in the makeup of a Marine, to whom the phrase “Semper Fidelis” (always faithful) is less like a motto and more like a way of life.

On the ice or on the battlefield, the leatherneck vibe is the same: You're either all in or you're all done.

Four Marines who can tell you first hand about all of that make up an important core of the U.S. National Sled Hockey Team.

Team USA is contending for gold this week at the IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships at the HARBORCENTER in Buffalo, New York, with a lineup that features Sgt. Josh Sweeney, LCpl. Josh Misiewicz, Cpl. Paul Schaus, and Cpl. Luke McDermott (all retired).

Two of them, team captain Sweeney and Schaus, are Team USA mainstays — with Paralympic gold medals to show for their efforts — while Misiewicz and McDermott are both rookies.

Still, in the heat of the battle where pucks and sleds are flying with abandon, rank takes a back seat.

“In the Marines, a lot of times you don't have to say stuff,” McDermott said. “You look at the guys who have been there for a while and how they act. Every Marine from the bottom up is supposed to lead by example, whether you have a leadership title or not.”

Finding Hockey

The shared bonds among the four are striking.

All of them are bilateral leg amputees, each having been severely injured by land mines while serving in Afghanistan.

Each of them plays forward, with Sweeney, Schaus and McDermott comprising U.S. coach Jeff Sauer's “All Marine Line.”

“I think we're a little harder on each other,” said Sweeney, who played high school hockey in Arizona, “just because we're used to talking to each other like that. We're not afraid to get into each other. That's just how we communicate.

“The biggest thing I've seen is just the work ethic. I think Marines just have an incredible work ethic. We'll just work hard and won't stop until we get what we want. They're just fitting right in. It's just like they've always been on the team.”

And all except McDermott played stand up hockey at various levels before joining the Marines.

“I'd never played hockey before,” McDermott said. “I didn't even know the rules. You could say you were offsides, and I couldn't be able to tell you how. But I went out and I tried it, and I was absolutely terrible. I was falling over, I couldn't stickhandle, I couldn't shoot. But guys [such as former Team USA members] Rico [Roman] and Jen Lee told me to keep at it. And I did. I'm learning more every day, and I will even after I'm done.”

For each of them, finding their way into sled hockey helped put them on the road to recovery, both in body and in spirit.

“Me and my two brothers played hockey all the time,” said Misiewicz, who first fell in love with the game as a kid growing up near Chicago, and later saw some ice time at Saint Mary's University in Minnesota. “Peewee, high school. You play with your buddies and start loving the game. When I joined the Marines [in 2008], I wanted to join a men's league, but then went to Afghanistan. You'd think about [hockey] a lot, because it was so hot — that it would be nice to be in an ice rink. Then one of the first thoughts when I got injured was that I would never play hockey again.”

Misiewicz's outlook brightened after a friend introduced him to the USA Warriors, a non-profit program that has helped numerous wounded military vets rebuild their lives through hockey.

He said that adapting to his adopted sport took some time.

After all, you can't skate backwards on a sled.

“I sucked at it at first,” he said. “And it was kind of frustrating, knowing you could play hockey, but not being able to do anything at first on the sled. But it's still hockey at its core. It's a physical, fun game to play.”

No one blends all the fun and physicality of hockey better than Schaus. Schaus, who grew up on the rinks of Buffalo, is as rambunctious on the ice as he is soft-spoken off it.

“'Paulie's an awesome dude,” McDermott said. “He doesn't like to speak about himself. But he's an incredible player and an incredible guy. He's a leader, even if he doesn't say too much. He leads by example. He's got your back, just like everybody else on the team.”

Misiewicz agreed.

“He's one of the hardest working guys out there, and he's one of the most physical,” he said. “If that puck's in the corner, he's getting down there and he's hitting somebody. He's a solid boy. He flies under the radar [and] he's modest. But he's someone to look up to.”

Shining a Spotlight on the Sport

Sweeney was at the focus of two of sled hockey's signature moments, ones that helped bring the sport out of the shadows and into the bright light of public consciousness.

The first of those was his breakaway goal that lifted Team USA to a 1-0 gold-medal game triumph over host Russia in the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games.

Moment No. 2 came some months later at the annual ESPY Awards, when he rolled onto the stage of the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles to receive the inaugural Pat Tillman Award for Service.

The sight of the wheelchair-bound Sweeney, alone with a massive image of the former NFL player and fallen U.S. Army Ranger behind him, was a truly arresting one.

It was one of those heart-in-the-throat moments in time that prompted a spontaneous standing ovation from an audience whose collective rings and medals — World Series, Stanley Cups, Olympics, Super Bowls, et al — are too numerous to count.

“You know the Pat Tillman story,” Misiewicz said. “What he sacrificed. He gave up millions of dollars to join the military and fight for our country. It was awesome for the sport to get that recognition, and it was awesome for Josh to get that award.”

McDermott, who at the time was weeks away from earning a spot on the national sled team, felt the impact as he watched the program from home.

“Just because we know what he's been through,” McDermott said. “The hard road he had. Not just with the hockey bit, but [just] getting healthy. Recovering. Getting his strength back. [All] before sled hockey came into his life. We knew what he went through. We went through the same stuff. So to see him show the strength and perseverance that veterans have. Even though we were injured, that we can still achieve great things. It was great to showcase that to the world.”

The usually unflappable Sweeney, who has seen firsthand the worst that the world has to offer, said he was a little taken aback by the spotlight into which he alone had been thrust.

“It was an amazing experience just rolling out on stage and seeing all those people I watch on TV,” Sweeney said. “And being associated with the legacy of Pat Tillman was just amazing. It was something I couldn't have ever asked for. I certainly wasn't expecting it. That was the best part.

“It took me a minute to try to get myself together to say what I wanted to say. I thought, ‘Wow. There's a lot of people here that have done amazing things, and they're appreciating what I've done and gone through.’”

What each Marine appreciates most now is the chance to continue giving back to the country he loves. And in uniform, to boot.

“It's a great honor to serve your country again,” McDermott said. “Obviously not in the same capacity. But when we got hurt. We were taken off the battlefield. Taken from our units. You're on your own, in a way, in your recovery. You're not in the team aspect anymore. Not with your brothers anymore. But to find sled hockey, and then to put that jersey on and represent your country again in a different way, is huge.”

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc