Jerry DeVaul was lying in a puddle of water, his legs severed, when he made a vow to himself and the sky above.

It was October 2011, and DeVaul was working at a mine in Trinidad after recently finishing his service in the U.S. Army when a coworker ran him over with a mining scoop — altering his life forever.

DeVaul spent nearly two hours after that alone and critically injured, waiting for help and hoping for a second chance.

Out of that trauma, and a bumpy road to recovery that included multiple detours, DeVaul eventually found his calling as a player and now president for Colorado Sled Hockey.

“When I lost my legs, I made a promise to God that day that if I kept my life, I would inspire daily,” DeVaul recalled. “Sled hockey is the way I do that, because I get to give back to other individuals who think that their life is forever done, and they won’t be able to do activities they enjoy. I was in that same position after my accident.

“This sport changed my life, and honestly saved my life. That’s why I try to expose as many people as possible to the sport, because every single time I offer it to someone new, and someone with a disability gets the same passion and motivation and drive out on the ice that I do, there’s nothing more satisfying on the planet.”

For his work with Colorado Sled Hockey, the 39-year-old Colorado Springs resident was recently named a finalist for the NHL’s Willie O’Ree Community Hero Award, presented annually to an individual who positively impacts a community through hockey.

In his role as president, DeVaul oversees an organization that’s been around since 1995 but has risen to another level under his direction. Colorado Sled Hockey has four teams — an A, B and C level, plus a youth squad — as it continues to grow in numbers and impact under DeVaul.

“I see him healing and inspiring a lot more people than he could probably even imagine,” his wife, Regina DeVaul, said. “And I’m seeing him fulfilling the dream he had since that day at the mine.”

Jerry rediscovering Jerry

Before DeVaul found sled hockey — and before the double-amputee became the central figure in the sport’s local growth — he had to find himself again.

After his injury, DeVaul spiraled into painkiller and alcohol abuse. He had recurring suicidal thoughts, including one suicide attempt. He stayed up all night and slept all day.

An unsuccessful legal action against the mining company only added to his depression. He thought he’d receive a large settlement, but was instead left financially in the red.

“I was taking 32 pills a day. I would snort a pill, chew a pill and swallow a pill to get the pain away,” DeVaul recalled. “That’s what I thought it was doing, but realistically, it was just masking things.”

One day, a pharmacist called DeVaul out for his excessive painkiller usage. That, along with a dark night where he found himself staring at a picture of his daughter with the Easter bunny, snapped him out of a three-year funk.

“He knew he couldn’t leave this little girl alone,” Regina DeVaul said, “and he found the will in that moment to move forward and try to get out of the spiral he was in.”

DeVaul went cold turkey after that. A couple of hard years of rehabilitation followed.

Finally sober, his volta came in 2016, when he spotted a Colorado Sled Hockey vehicle at an airport gas station. He banged on the window of the vehicle, startling longtime organization leader Corey Fairbanks, and peppered him with questions about how he could join.

DeVaul quickly fell in love and took on the task of running the organization’s team of military veterans — the Warriors.

“Immediately you could tell that he had passion, and he was looking to pour it into something,” Fairbanks said. “I will credit him because we had been working for a long time to try to get the Warrior program started, and until we actually had a (veteran) like Jerry who had the motivation to go out and recruit players, we struggled. He was that conduit who was able to help us bridge that gap and bring in the military players.”

Player, mentor, leader

On the ice, DeVaul quickly established himself as a physical player with an indomitable work ethic. He grinded his way to a spot on Colorado Sled Hockey’s top travel team.

The pink pig painted on his sled is emblematic of a guy who doesn’t mind focusing on the unheralded details of the game.

“He’s the player you really don’t need until you don’t have him, or you really don’t appreciate him until he’s not playing,” explained Declan Farmer, a Colorado Sled Hockey member who is a three-time Paralympic gold medalist and four-time world champion.

“He’s so good in front of the net, he’s really good with tips and rebounds, really strong with his stick. It takes skill to put pucks in the net that are really wobbly or off weird deflections. And he plays with a lot of grit as a hard hitter, he gets in goalie’s faces, and people hate playing against him.”

Who DeVaul is off the ice is what has set him apart, however.

Recruiting people to play sled hockey is less about finding talent, and more about making people believe in themselves again. That’s where DeVaul thrives.

For Ryan Strong, a 37-year-old who suffered a spinal cord injury while paragliding, DeVaul’s instant camaraderie filled a void. For John Reid, a 38-year-old ex-Marine who had his right arm shattered and permanently crippled after being shot on deployment, DeVaul’s willingness to provide Reid with what he really needed to heal — support and an outlet — gave Reid a purpose.

“Breaking people out of their shells is a big part of what Jerry’s done, and making sure people of all different abilities, levels and disabilities all feel confident and feel like they’re having fun with this sport,” Strong said. “Because it’s competitive, but at the end of the day, we’re also here to build each other up. That’s what Jerry does best.”

Reid describes DeVaul’s demeanor as a “velvet hammer,” where he “does not force you into doing anything, but he tells you what you need to do to pick your chin up and get going again.”

“On the last day of my first sled hockey camp, I went up to him and was like, ‘Hey man, I just wanted to say thanks for helping me out. Just wanted to say goodbye and thanks again,’” recalled Reid, who now runs Colorado Sled Hockey’s sector in northern Colorado. “And he was looking at me weird and he was like, ‘I don’t know where the heck you think you’re going. You’re not going anywhere. You’re going to join our team.’”

It’s that sort of influence — and DeVaul’s ability to achieve lofty sport-wide goals such as his role in expanding the premier Midwest Sled Hockey League to include lower-level teams — that’s paved the way for bigger dreams.

DeVaul is planning for Colorado Sled Hockey to host an inaugural “Hockey House of Healing” this summer — an immersive one-week boarding camp where kids and adults of all skill levels will stay together at rented houses to learn the sport, how to navigate their disabilities and see how national team members such as Farmer train.

His long-term goal is for Colorado to have its own sled hockey league that rivals the Midwest Sled Hockey League.

After seeing the success of the debut season of the Professional Women’s Hockey League, he isn’t counting out the possibility of making it a professional circuit, either.

“Whether that’s only in Colorado, or if one of the teams is located in Colorado, only time will tell,” Farmer said. “But if anyone could pull that off, and getting people to buy tickets to see the top talent in this sport, it’s Jerry.”

The epicenter of sled hockey

When Colorado Sled Hockey began in the mid-1990s, Fairbanks said it was only “about five old guys” playing at 5 a.m. midweek. Its youth program began about a decade later with similarly humble numbers.

Now, the organization boasts 61 players as it’s grown into a multi-tiered program with an array of weekly practice spots. The A team has claimed six national titles, most recently last year, as well as six Midwest Sled Hockey League crowns and three USA Hockey Sled Classic tournament wins.

Farmer says DeVaul’s efforts as president over the past couple of years made Colorado “a drawing point” for the nation’s top players. In addition to Farmer (a Florida native) and Aurora native Malik Jones, fellow national team members David Eustace and Noah Grove also moved to Colorado, and Farmer says three other U.S. players also have plans to relocate here soon.

That influx of top talent, in addition to other recent ex-national team members who live here and up-and-coming locals pushing to make the team, “makes for a competitive training environment all year which really helps (the U.S. team’s) development,” according to Farmer.

Colorado’s status as an incubator is all the more important considering other countries such as the Czech Republic, China and Russia are catching up with the U.S. and Canada.

“I like Colorado for personal reasons, and for the outdoors, but it really is the best place for sled hockey, too, and that credit goes to Jerry,” Farmer said. “The infrastructure out here, where there’s a deep program with A, B and C teams and there’s a deep youth program that Jones came out of, that’s important. Plus, there’s all these ice times available to us for the national team guys to train throughout the year.”

DeVaul estimates the organization needs around $200,000 to fund all its teams annually.

Colorado Sled Hockey gets help from the Avs, whose jerseys they wear at all levels, via an annual donation. The Avalanche became the first NHL team to sponsor sled hockey in 1996. The NHL franchise kicked in $60,000 in 2023 to cover jerseys and help offset the cost of ice time and travel. Big Bear Ice Arena in Denver is the organization’s primary home, where Colorado Sled Hockey gets discounted rates to practice.

DeVaul is the man behind all the fundraising and logistics, and he’s also a primary reason why Colorado Sled Hockey regained its 501(c)(3) status after temporarily losing it because the organization didn’t properly file taxes for a few years.

“They’ve got a lot of amazing people within the organization, but Jerry was an integral part of getting Colorado Sled Hockey back on its feet,” explained Marty Richardson, who runs DAWG Nation Hockey Foundation and is DeVaul’s close friend. “They needed a leader at that moment, and he definitely fit the bill.”

Richardson, who was a finalist for the O’Ree Award last year before losing to Detroit’s Jason McCrimmon, believes DeVaul’s resume is strong enough to become the first Coloradan to win the honor.

Should DeVaul win, it would come with a $25,000 donation to Colorado Sled Hockey. The winner is announced in June, and is decided based on a combination of public voting (25% of a candidate’s score) in addition to input from NHL executives, Discover executives and O’Ree himself.

Regardless of how that shakes out, those who know DeVaul best say he’s one of the best things to happen to local hockey.

“Jerry DeVaul is the most incredible example of what every human being is capable of,” Reid said. “He’s just an unstoppable force. He’s someone you can look up to say, ‘Ok, no matter what I’ve been through, I can do that.’”