FORT CARSON, Colo. -- Hockey is known as a demanding sport requiring its athletes to be strong in body and mind. However, even the best trained and well-conditioned athlete can be injured and has to take a step back off the line to rest and recover.
This was at the heart of the message Fort Carson Warrior Transition Battalion Command Sgt. Maj. Christopher D. Cole shared with the visiting Colorado College Tigers men's hockey team Feb. 11, 2015.
"The Warrior Transition Battalion is the injured reserve of the Army," Cole told the players. "You are out there doing a sport, we happened to be doing a very serious sport that is called being a Soldier and it is pretty dangerous.
"We will put (wounded warriors) in this unit to help (them) rebuild and get back on the field or back into the community as a veteran proud of the uniform (they) wore," said Cole.
A 1993 graduate of Colorado College, Cole said he was ecstatic to have the Tigers visit Fort Carson's Soldier and Family Assistance Center.
The Tigers arrived during the inprocessing of a new group of wounded warriors. The team's goal for the visit was to meet and express its appreciation for the Service members.
"We appreciate everything the military and these individuals have done for us, it is pretty remarkable, the things they sacrificed and did for the betterment of our communities and country as a whole," said Jared Hanson, the Tigers' assistant captain.
The players brought something to share with the warriors -- limited edition hats and hockey pucks.
"The hats we brought today are from Operation Hat Trick," said Jessica Bennett, director of athletic marketing, Colorado College. "It is a college program that supports military in all branches."
The game pucks are only given out by the team, Bennett added.
The team met Lt. Col. Aaron M. Termain, WTB commander, members of his staff and received a briefing on the unit's adaptive sports equipment.
Becky Richardson, WTB military adaptive specialist coordinator, explained the Warrior Games events and equipment.
"(The Warrior Games are) basically the Paralympics with summer events," Richardson said.
The uniformed services and the U.S. Special Operations Command compete in events to include swimming, archery, wheelchair basketball and sitting volleyball to determine the victor. The fifth annual Warrior Games were held in Colorado Springs in October when the Army won its first Chairman's Cup.
"This morning one of the things we did was sled hockey," said Richardson. "We actually (had) a tournament against the (Colorado) Avalanche sled hockey team Feb. 22. We try to get that going every year during the military appreciation day."
The wounded warriors played during the intermissions of the Avalanche's game against the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Pepsi Center in Denver, she added.
The CC hockey team had a chance to use the adaptive sports equipment and saw the challenges wounded warriors face when playing sports and staying active while recovering from injuries.
"We look forward to these visits because it is a way to give back to the community," said Hanson. "This (visit) is pretty cool. It's great to see everything (the WTB does) for the guys coming back from an injury, whatever it may be. It shows how much work they put into it. It is kind of eye-opening, actually, to see."
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