Derek Beach, Jon Bonar and a few others were chatting at the rink Sunday morning before hockey practice when a new guy showed up. The new player was from Florida, looking for a hockey home after moving to Illinois. They pointed him to the locker room. He’d found it.
Beach, Bonar and the rest of the Central Illinois Veteran Warriors hockey team take pride in creating a welcoming environment for all comers, including those Bloomington-Normal.
“We're not counselors or therapists, but getting out there with other veterans that have had the same experience that you've had maybe in Iraq or Afghanistan and being able to talk to them about those experiences, and maybe talking to them how they've gotten through different situations, can be extremely beneficial,” said Bonar, from Peoria.
The Warriors tout themselves as the only sports program in Central Illinois dedicated to rehabilitation and therapy for disabled veterans. They strive to provide a buddy-check support system and an experience for veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD], substance abuse, or other issues.
One of the goals is to help reduce veteran suicide. Beach, the team president, knows the statistics: There are around 17 veteran suicides per day, according to the most recent data available.
“So that if you’re struggling with something, you feel free to speak your mind to somebody on the team or somebody in the locker room, and just kind of give us that mental health aspect of that, just so guys feel open to talk,” said Beach, from Pekin.
There are 32 players on the team, across many skill levels. Not everyone makes it to every practice or every game.
They do show up when it counts. When a tree fell on the house of a veteran who didn’t have insurance to get it fixed, the Warriors showed up to cut it down for him.
“We are a hockey team, but we're here to be a group of brothers, pretty much,” Beach said.
Beach served in the U.S. Army from 2007-09, including a deployment to Baghdad in 2008. He was injured and medevaced out.
Today Beach helps run day-to-day operations as a supervisor at Veterans Memorial Arena, the Pekin ice rink where the Warriors sometimes practice, as they did this past Sunday morning.
Beach likes playing hockey with a bunch of like-minded guys, of course. But he said his favorite part happens when they’re together socially ‒ like during a recent team trip to watch a Bloomington Bison pro hockey game.
“I enjoy [seeing] the guys enjoying it with their family and just seeing how they interact with their people. It's cool to see just the atmosphere that everybody's created here. The friendship. Everybody just laughing and joking like we've all been together or lived together. We're a big family, and that's the part of it that I enjoy the most. That's the part of it that I love.”
The Central Illinois Veteran Warriors come from all over, including Bloomington-Normal, Peoria, Decatur, Springfield, and Champaign-Urbana. Warrior hockey is a USA Hockey program, so the Central Illinois team plays against similar teams across the country at travel tournaments.
Jon Bonar spent 22 years in the Marines. The hockey team is the only veterans social group he’s in.
“It helps in a lot of ways. Being a part of something, right? I think a lot of veterans get out and they're not part of anything anymore, and they still want to be around other people, with like-minded people, where they could share their stories, they could share their experiences with people,” Bonar said.
The team also provides structure.
“We hold each other accountable,” Beach said. “If somebody makes a mistake or messes up, somebody backs out of practice at the last minute, we're saying, ‘Hey, what's going on? Are you OK?’” Beach said. “It's not necessarily anybody bossing anybody around, like you do in the military. ... It's an accountability process.”
Bonar said the team’s made a tangible difference in the lives of its players.
“There's a lot of guys that were struggling with certain mental health or disability [issues]. So it’s pushing guys to get out to the VA and to get that help and to get the treatment, and to get the VA ratings and the services they need to -- I think that's the biggest part of it. And a lot of these guys probably wouldn't have done it. They didn't know how to do it. So just having that connection, I think, is the larger thing,” Bonar said. “When you share those wins, and you win a game, or win a tournament, all those are fantastic. But I think on a larger scale, it's getting guys connected to get to the places that they need to, the services they need.”
If you’re interested in joining the team, contact info@civw.org.
