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Police officers and firefighters have a common goal: be the best public safety workers they can be.

At the hockey rink, the police officers and firefighters who play in the Fox Valley Ice Arena Adult Hockey League in Geneva, Ill., also have a common goal: have fun and relieve some stress.

About nine police officers and seven firefighters joined forces this year for the first time and started a hockey team, the Sheepdogs.

“We’re all like-minded. We want to help our community,” said Tony Centimano, a firefighter for the St. Charles Fire Department who helped found the Sheepdogs. “We have a lot of personalities that are very close to each other. You gravitate toward those people that become your friends.”

Playing on the same hockey team has been a great thing for the guys as well as the St. Charles police and fire departments.

“It’s gone a long way in bringing our departments together,” Centimano said. “The police and fire departments in our town worked together, and that’s about it. We’d come to an emergency scene together, and we’d go back to our own separate ways and never really spent any time together. Over the years it’s gotten a lot better, and I think this hockey team is a testament how we’ve been working a lot more together since 2001.”

Serving in high-risk, high-reward professions, the guys on the Sheepdogs enjoy exchanging friendly banter.

“It’s mostly about which is better and which one is the bigger hero,” said St. Charles police officer Mike McCowan, who is a member of the Sheepdogs. “The fire guys say that they are our heroes, and we of course say the exact opposite. Whether it’s on a call or on the ice or in the bar, we’re all trying for the same thing, trying to have fun on the ice and keep people safe off the ice.”

The name Sheepdogs pays homage to retired Army Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, who is a law enforcement/military motivational speaker. The term is an analogy that the general population is the sheep, the wolves are the bad guys and those in public safety are the sheepdogs who protect the herd.

The Sheepdogs team is comprised of all police officers and firefighters, except for some substitutes who might get called in for a game when the team is shorthanded. The players range in age from mid-30s to the mid-50s, with a wide skill level on the ice.

“We’ve got guys from various backgrounds in terms of their hockey skill, from beginners to former college club players,” said Centimano, 37, who played as a substitute for a few teams before helping start the Sheepdogs.

Since it’s the Sheepdogs’ first season, the guys are still trying to adapt to one another on the ice. The team has used several line variations in searching for the best combinations.

“You start to pick up on the linemates you have good chemistry with and the linemates that you don’t, but they have good chemistry with somebody else,” said McCowan, 41, who just last year got back on the ice after taking an 18-year hiatus from playing hockey. “Definitely it’s a learning process for everybody.”

The camaraderie amongst the players is starting to show on the ice. Centimano believes that has a lot to do with the players’ professions off the ice.

“One of the biggest things in being a firefighter or being a police officer, you typically rely on teamwork, and we’re responsible for a lot of things,” Centimano said. “Just like a defenseman is responsible for a certain area or a certain task, same as wingers and centers. It’s really easy to explain positions and responsibilities and then work together as we’re playing.”

The Sheepdogs compete in the C2 division of the Fox Valley Ice Arena Adult Hockey League, on the western edge of Chicago. The team didn’t do as well as the players hoped for in the standings, but they believe the experience isn’t all about sporting a winning record.

“We have to go into it thinking about having fun or it would be more of a stresser than stress relief,” McCowan said. “It definitely should be about fun, at least at this stage of the game.”

Fun doesn’t seem to be lacking on Sunday nights. Skating once a week takes the players’ minds off what can be a very taxing profession.

“You see these guys out on the street working with them on the same shift and you’re dealing with some nasty things sometimes, and to get away from that scene and get out on the ice and joke around — have a good skate, have a bad skate, it doesn’t really matter,” McCowan said. “It’s fun to get out there and play and hang out in the locker room afterwards.”

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.