Ridgewood's Jack Wallace Competing At 2018 Paralympics

RIDGEWOOD, NJ — Jack Wallace will take his love of hockey to the world's stage in March.

Wallace is a player on the U.S. National Sled Hockey Team that will compete at the 2018 Paralympics in PyeongChang, South Korea in March.

Hockey was always Wallace's first love, one that continued even after a horrific boating accident in 2008. The boat ran over both his legs and the right one was amputated above the knee.

He was a coma for three days and in the hospital for two months, NJ.com reported.

Wallace, a Ridgewood native and Franklin Lakes resident, got right back on the ice and began playing sled hockey at Camp No Limits in Maine. His local club team is the NJ Freeze.

Sled hockey players "sit in specifically designed sleds that sit on top of two hockey skate blades. There are two sticks for each player instead of one, and the sticks have metal pics on the butt end for players to propel themselves," as U.S. Hockey describes the sport.

The sport "provides the opportunity for many types of disabilities and is rapidly growing," according to U.S. Hockey.

Wallace has already had a successful tenure on the ice for the men's national team. The team won silver at the 2017 World Championships.

Wallace is majoring in biomedical engineering at The College of New Jersey.

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Photo: YouTube screenshot of the U.S. National Sled Hockey Team