Newark’s groundbreaking new hockey team has a gold-medal inspiration | Politi – NJ.com

Sled hockey in Newark

Jack Wallace, a two-time gold medalist in sled hockey from Franklin Lakes, poses for a photo with his medals and ChengHai Cordle, a sled hockey player from Princeton. (Steve Politi | NJ Advance Media)

The first time Keith Veltre watched Newark’s newest hockey players take the ice, he worried. Just lowering themselves into the narrow bucket on their sleds, after all, looked like such a challenge for the young athletes.

What if they could figure out how to use their short sticks to power themselves? What if they toppled onto their side and couldn’t get upright?