In the days following a devastating combat injury, Matias Ferreira’s thoughts naturally centered on everything now seemingly beyond his ability.

On Jan. 21, 2011, Ferreira stepped on an improvised explosive device while serving with his Marine unit in Afghanistan, leaving him with a broken pelvis and a shattered femur and without both legs below his knees.

"At first you’re like, I can’t. I won’t be able to play again, I won’t ever be able to dance, I won’t be able to go out and have fun with my friends. … It’s just telling yourself ‘you won’t,’ " recalled Ferreira.

"You won’t" became "I can" following a visit from fellow war veterans Josh Wege and Matt Kinsey, who met with Ferreira during his rehabilitation at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., and started talking about joining them with the Wounded Warrior Amputee Softball Team.

Their talk really took hold when Wege showed him the prosthetic legs beneath his jeans.

Wege, a lance corporal in the Marine Corps, also lost both legs in Afghanistan, in 2009, and was among the original members of the WWAST, which formed in early 2011 with players who lost limbs in post-9/11 military service.

"Then you have that possibility, you have that hope, that faith that you’re going to be able to do these things," Ferreira said.

Instilling that faith in others is part of the WWAST’s mission, a message they’ll bring to Oahu when the team visits in January for a series of games.

The 14-member slow-pitch softball team, which only plays against able-bodied teams, is scheduled to play five games from Jan. 5 to 12 at military bases around the island and at the University of Hawaii in a visit coordinated with the Amateur Softball Association’s Hawaii chapter.

Ferreira, Wege, Kinsey and Nick Clark arrived in town this week to help promote the series and the program’s stated goal of raising awareness "of the sacrifices and resilience of our military and highlight their ability to rise above any challenge."

"If we can touch the guys in a similar situation, that’ll be a good day," Wege said during a practice at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam’s Millican Field. "But ultimately we just want to inspire the nation and just want to spread the word."

The team was founded by David Van Sleet in early 2011, bringing together four aspects of his own life. He’d served in the Army and worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs. He’d also devoted his career to working in prosthetics and had been active in softball for years.

"It was time in my career to give something back," said Van Sleet, who is the team’s coach. "I’ve seen a small spark turn into a wildfire in about a year and a half’s time."

Van Sleet assembled a roster with nine players who had an amputation of their lower leg, three who’d lost an arm or hand and two — Ferreira and Wege — who had bilateral amputations below the knee.

With about $2 million in prosthetics between them, they’ve barnstormed around the country playing close to 40 exhibition games over the past year, continuing to serve in a new capacity.

"This is one of the biggest honors of my life, to be part of this team," said Kinsey, an Army paratrooper when he lost part of his right leg to a land mine in Afghanistan on June 2, 2010.

"We’re not over there in the war or doing what we were doing, but now we’re showing the perseverance, showing the true spirit of the wounded warriors."

While there’s a message behind their appearances, "once the first pitch is thrown, it’s about playing ball and being competitive," said Kinsey, who pitched in junior college before joining the Army and slammed a few out of Millican Field during Monday’s hitting session.

The players’ gear bags now include their prosthetics, along with gloves and bats, and they’ve learned to play with the artifical limbs to the point where it’s sometimes tough to tell they’re wearing one.

"Guys are pretty creative and they know how to adapt to different ways of life. They do it around the house; why is the softball field any different?" Wege said. "You find ways that work for you."

Just as the team brings a message of hope to their various stops, playing softball and sharing the experience with others dealing with similar injuries has provided its members with a spiritual boost in their recovery.

"When you have a traumatic experience, your therapy is never over. It’s a lifelong thing; that’s just the way it is," said Clark, the team’s 31-year-old left fielder. "This is fast-tracking my therapy, my recovery, the mental side of it, the physical side of it."

Wege, 22, played football, basketball and baseball while in high school in Campbellsport Wis., so playing with the team has proven that the life-changing injury hasn’t ended his life as an athlete.

"You go from being a healthy 19-year-old kid who’s able to carry 80 pounds on his back and walk around Afghanistan to losing your base. It’s a shock, especially for an athlete, because your base is everything," Wege said.

"Emotionally, it gives me that competitive spirit and the camaraderie. You have it in the military and you have that through everything. It’s a blessing in itself just to be able to step on the field with these guys. They inspire me; I inspire them."