In the last four years, Ruslan Sherstiuk has traversed the world — out of necessity. Related Articles High School Sports | Mentor Public Library hosting program on early literacy High School Sports | Mentor man sentenced to prison for pandering sexual material involving minor High School Sports | Perry Village appoints new fiscal officer High School Sports | Visitors come out on cold, snowy day for ‘Chilloughby’ winter festival High School Sports | Willowick City Council to decide on sale of recreational marijuana in city In 2021, Sherstiuk was still in his native Ukraine, going about his hockey and life journey like teenagers the world over. War changed everything. What followed — due to the ongoing war with Russia — was anything but a normal journey, with stops near and far. War took Sherstiuk and his family away from Ukraine. But one thing it did not take was his love for hockey. That affinity — that shared language that crosses boundaries — has been reignited more than 5,100 miles away, now in his new home — Mentor. Sherstiuk is in his first season with the Cardinals as a junior forward, with six goals and six assists amid a 14-8-2 campaign thus far. In this instance, however, war has made this Point-A-to-Point-B journey particularly complicated — but one that serves as a testament to perseverance. With Mentor goaltender Ryan Wilkinson’s mother Alina serving as an interpreter, Sherstiuk shared how life and hockey brought him to Northeast Ohio. Sherstiuk hails from Dnipro, Ukraine’s third-largest city located in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast (region) in the eastern portion of the country. There is one rink in Dnipro that serves as the hub for his region’s hockey. “My aunt intentionally didn’t want to stay where it was just Ukrainians who spoke just Ukrainian. She wanted to assimilate and speak English and be in more of an assimilated kind of community, which is why they picked Mentor.” — Ruslan Sherstiuk “I had a hard time initially, because I started in hockey much later than my peers,” Sherstiuk said prior to a mercy-rule win Jan. 12 over Benedictine. “I wanted to quit. But my father said, ‘You don’t have a choice. You need to focus, and you need to continue to play.’ And I did, even though I was behind. I just stuck it out and tried harder.” As Sherstiuk explained, he began playing hockey at 6, while most of his contemporaries got going around 4 or 5. Ukraine is a proud hockey nation, ranked 27th in the IIHF world rankings, competing in the World Championships every cycle since 1993 and making one Olympic appearance for the 2002 Winter Games in Utah. That year, Ukraine had its highest World finish as well, placing ninth. Thanks to the initial nudge from his father Oleksandr, Sherstiuk continued in the game despite his later start. “I started falling in love when I was able to make goals,” Sherstiuk said. “That was probably around 7 years old. That’s when it started to click and I enjoyed it.” Sherstiuk represented Dnipro at youth club level and noted he was also part of the youth national system. With just the one rink, Sherstiuk’s Dnipro-based teams would host and travel to other Ukrainian regions for games. In 2021, though, the threat of war edged ever closer to home. “We started feeling the tension before the war was officially declared for six months,” Sherstiuk said. “So about six months prior to that, things started to feel weird. And then the war was fully declared. “Everything stopped. The rockets started firing, and we lost all power. There was no power in the city.” Related Articles High School Sports | OHSAA releases first MaxPrepsRPI ratings of the season High School Sports | OHSAA releases first girls basketball MaxPrepsRPI ratings of the 2024-25 season High School Sports | High school scoreboard for Jan. 12 High School Sports | Boys swimming area leaders for Jan. 13 High School Sports | Girls swimming area leaders for Jan. 13 No power. No hockey. No longer a normal teenage life. At the onset of the war, Ukraine held a mandatory military draft for all men ages 18-55. That included Oleksandr and Sherstiuk’s older brother, who is 24. In a bid to protect Oleksandr and mother Elena’s younger children, Ruslan and sister Oksana, from the devolving situation in Ukraine, they were sent to Germany in 2022. Their stay there lasted 2 1/2 months before continuing to Toronto for three months that summer. A family took in Sherstiuk and his sister, but they were unable to stay there beyond that three months. So Sherstiuk returned to Dnipro for a year. “I was never playing hockey,” Sherstiuk said. “All this time.” Oleksandr eventually aged out of military duty, but Sherstiuk’s older brother remains in the country, serving in the Ukrainian military and living in the family home with his wife and a young child. The concern for Sherstiuk’s family and for his nation, of course, are palpable. “Every day,” Sherstiuk said. “We worry about (my brother) every day. It’s tough.” By the time he returned to Ukraine, Sherstiuk was potentially nearing a crossroads himself of having to also serve through the mandatory draft. “I was getting closer to age 18 (for the draft),” Sherstiuk said. “There were rumors starting that they’re going to start mandatory drafting at 17 years old. My parents got really worried.” So Sherstiuk went to Poland and a small suburb of its capital Warsaw for three months along with Oleksandr and his sister. Sherstiuk’s mother Elena got permission and a visa to come to the United States, Northeast Ohio to be specific, because her sister has resided locally for 30 years. Elena lived with her sister for a year into the summer of 2023 and was able in turn to get her children visas due to being a naturalized United States citizen. Oleksandr later joined the family in the U.S. as well. “My aunt intentionally didn’t want to stay where it was just Ukrainians who spoke just Ukrainian,” Sherstiuk explained. “She wanted to assimilate and speak English and be in more of an assimilated kind of community, which is why they picked Mentor. “My aunt told my mom that the school is a fantastic school. Her kids went here. So my cousins went here. They said they have a hockey team, and this is a great team.” Sherstiuk and the Cardinals, each in their own way, discovered that greatness within the program, one not necessarily measured by victories or setbacks on the ice. Mentor’s Ruslan Sherstiuk eyes a loose puck Dec. 26 against Rocky River. (Tim Phillis – For The News-Herald) As Sherstiuk settled into Mentor, Cardinals coach Paul McKito lent Sherstiuk some of his son’s hockey equipment. Then, through the generosity of the Wilkinson family and the program’s booster club, Sherstiuk went to Pure Hockey and purchased equipment all his own. “The kids, right off the bat, were great to him,” McKito said. “They were welcoming to him and took him under their wing. They made him feel at home. It just says a lot about the kind of kids we have in our program.” When Sherstiuk got on the ice for Mentor’s first practice, it marked the first time in more than two years he had been on the ice at all. “At first, I was very worried,” Sherstiuk said. “But I was really happy, because the team embraced me. All of the kids on the team embraced me. They’re really good to me. Because of that, it just made the transition really easy.” Understandably, McKito wasn’t 100% certain what Sherstiuk could or would contribute, shaking off the rust from his many moves and becoming acclimated to a different brand of hockey. “I assumed he was going to be a hockey player,” McKito said. “And once he got on the ice, he looked really comfortable. And the funny thing about it, with the language barrier between him and I and the kids, he may not understand English, but he understands hockey. “Over the summer, doing the drills in preseason, all the way leading up to here, he gets it. He gets the Xes and Os. Fortunately, there isn’t a barrier there.” “Only good luck. I just wish them all the luck in the world. In a situation where rockets are flying over your head on a daily basis, what can you wish them? You can only wish them luck.” — Ruslan Sherstiuk  To make the language barrier smoother for him and his teammates and coaches, Sherstiuk found methods to communicate. “It’s no problem,” Sherstiuk said. “In the beginning, I only talked to them through a translation app. Now, I don’t use the app anymore. I now have friends here, and we’re slowly communicating.” McKito has primarily used Sherstiuk on the Cardinals’ third line with junior Aiden Gibson and senior Billy Becay, while keeping options open for line experimentation in the stretch run. For Gibson, making Sherstiuk feel at home was the utmost priority. “I think teamwork is a really big thing when it comes to being a successful team,” Gibson said. “I think we all just had to treat him like he was part of the team from the get-go so we could have a great start together and get the chemistry going immediately. “I think the biggest part was the different style he played for sure. Because obviously, coming from a different country, they play a whole other game. It just took him a little bit to get used to how we play over here. But he definitely got used to it really fast, and it’s going really well right now.” When Sherstiuk has a question for his linemates or for McKito, it’s drawn up on the board and he soaks in that information. His first point in a Cardinals’ sweater came in an 8-1 victory Dec. 7 over Anthony Wayne during the Adam Hamilton Memorial tournament, with an assist. Sherstiuk lit the lamp twice in Mentor’s 6-1 GCHSHL Red win Dec. 10 over Amherst, and he’s been on his way ever since. Ever the supportive linemate, Gibson is hopeful the best is still on the horizon. “Oh yeah, for sure. It’s already started,” Gibson said. “After every game, he’s more hyped after every performance. And we just keep hyping him up as a teammate, keeping him on his feet, even after mistakes. And it’s going really well for us, and our line especially.” According to the Center For Strategic and International Studies, the war in Ukraine continues on several fronts along the country’s eastern border. While his native land — and suffice it to say, his brother on the war front — are firmly in heart and mind, Sherstiuk doesn’t view himself as representing Ukraine in a symbolic sense on the ice while donning the Mentor scarlet and gray. Instead, as he mentioned, he’s now “all about America.” America, after all, has presented him the opportunity to get back to hockey — and, as best as he can under the circumstances — get back to some semblance of normalcy. Sherstiuk has faced down more life experience in the last four years than most his age — from Ukraine to Germany to Canada back to Ukraine to Poland and to the United States. At every step, his hockey affinity has aided his journey. All the while, though, he will never forget Ukraine, while counting his good fortune in finding his way to Mentor. “Only good luck,” Sherstiuk said of his message to Ukrainians back home. “I just wish them all the luck in the world. “In a situation where rockets are flying over your head on a daily basis, what can you wish them? You can only wish them luck.”