The Navy veteran played the sport his entire life but had been forced to give it up due to various injuries. The Lowcountry sled hockey team, which skates at the Carolina Ice Palace, brought him back to the ice.This extended time together in the locker room and on the ice has given members of the […]
The Navy veteran played the sport his entire life but had been forced to give it up due to various injuries. The Lowcountry sled hockey team, which skates at the Carolina Ice Palace, brought him back to the ice.This extended time together in the locker room and on the ice has given members of the Charleston Warriors a sense of community — a feeling they might have missed since leaving the military.
The nonprofit, which this year gained two non-veteran single amputees, has grown to the point where players are split into two teams, one of which took home the South East Sled Hockey League Championship title in March. Practices are held at least once a month at the Carolina Ice Palace, and tournaments have taken players as far away as Minnesota and Toronto.
The full slate of activities helps participants feel as though they’re part of something bigger than themselves. For veterans, completing each task alongside those with shared experiences makes the endeavor all the more worthwhile, Merritt said.
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For now, though, you can find Merritt helping fellow veterans catch their first few waves on Folly Beach. “I got pushed into my first wave and I was hooked,” said Merritt, who found surfing helped him better live in the moment. “It makes you focus on only right now.”Veterans with physical and psychological disabilities can benefit from physical activities like sports, studies by the National Institutes of Health and other organizations have shown. Clayton Merritt, executive director of Warrior Surf Foundation in Charleston, experienced the rewards firsthand.
Warrior Surf is free for veterans and their family members, who can sign up online for one of six sessions from March through August. It costs the nonprofit nearly ,000 to put one person through the program, which culminates in a ceremony at Palmetto Brewing Co. Graduates are eligible to attend a Warrior Surf retreat, one of which is funded by Mex 1 Coastal Cantina.
Warrior Surf Foundation’s leaders have big goals for the future, Merritt said. They hope to help as many veterans as possible by bringing their programming to cities up and down both coasts. Merritt found himself struggling to fill the void left by the Army when he separated in 2017. Participating in Warrior Surf’s 12-week program, which blends surfing on Folly Beach with yoga and counseling sessions, offered an outlet he couldn’t find elsewhere.
Ocean outlet
Sled hockey players, who can sign up online, need helmets, body pads, gloves, sleds and a pair of smaller sticks, which propel players up and down the ice while seated. The Charleston Warriors fund between ,500 and ,000 to suit up each of the members, Hogan said. Warrior Surf Foundation is free for veterans and their family members, who can sign up online for one of six sessions from March through August. Sled hockey, which began in Sweden in the 1960s and made its Paralympic debut 30 years ago, allows participants who have a physical disability to play the game of ice hockey. At rinks across the country, players with and without disabilities carve across the ice in custom sleds with two blades, passing and shooting the puck into a net as one does while playing traditional standup hockey.
“You’re going to get a lot more out of it because you had to put a lot more into it,” he said.
“Everybody on the ice has fought a certain battle,” Fountain said. “If we’re one of those things that they can do and it helps their quality of life … then we’re serving our purpose.”
“It’s truly given us a purpose beyond the sport,” Hogan said. “Just seeing the vast array of people with disabilities having the ability to play a sport is truly incredible.”
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Derek Hogan was writing his Trident Technical College thesis about hockey when he stumbled on the Charleston Warriors website.The Charleston Warriors pose for a team photo after winning the South East Sled Hockey League (SESHL) Championship in March.
Hogan at first thought he’d try sled hockey for a skate or two. A few years later, he’s the director of the Charleston nonprofit founded in 2018 by Air Force veteran Marc Fountain, who hoped the team would offer “veterans and folks with disabilities an alternative by means of sled hockey,” he told The Post and Courier.To date, the decade-old program founded by veteran Andy Manzi has helped more than 900 veterans and family members. As part of Warrior Surf, each completed 10 surf sessions, eight wellness meetings with coaches who specialize in social services or clinical counseling, and three yoga classes.
