UNITED STATES QUAD RUGBY ASSOCIATION

October 2002

A way to revive the drive
By MIKE LOWE, Portland Press Herald Writer
Copyright © 2002 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

FREEPORT -- For seven years, Donnie Wright did nothing. He just sat in his house in Milbridge up the coast and did nothing. "You might call it just feeling sorry for myself," he said.

Wright, 47, was injured in an automobile accident on Nov. 11, 1987, just south of Machias on Route 1.

Wright had been drinking and driving. His car rolled over. He broke his neck. A friend seated next to him escaped injury.

"Just one stupid mistake," Wright said. "Thank God no one else was hurt."

Wright ended up in a wheelchair, unable to use his legs any longer, with some disability of his arms.

"For seven years," he said, "I didn't do anything."

Then one day he got a phone call.

"Some guy asked me if I wanted to play rugby," he said. "I asked him, 'What are we going to do?' He said, 'We're going to get into chairs and run into each other.' I said, 'Sign me up.' "

Life hasn't been the same since for Wright, or any of the hundreds of quadriplegics across the country who play quad rugby.

Quad rugby, or wheelchair rugby as it is also called, offers men and women like Wright the chance to compete again, the chance to find an inner drive they thought had been turned off forever.

"This got me out, it got me back into the social scene again," Wright said. "It probably saved my life. . . . It definitely changed my life, you know."

Wright is one of nine men who make up the Casco Bay Navigators, Maine's only quad rugby team. They practice every Wednesday night on Freeport High's basketball court, with several members traveling as much as two hours to attend. They travel the East Coast to play in weekend tournaments.

"This is a very big commitment for everyone," said Kerri Myers, coach of the Navigators. "There is a lot of travel for most of the players and a lot of work for them to do. And they do a lot of things outside of practice in terms of fund raising and practicing on their own.

"So it is a big commitment, but they also enjoy it."

Myers had never heard of the sport when one of her co-workers at Saco Bay Physical Therapy asked her to get involved. Myers began as a trainer and somehow evolved into the team's coach.

"I had absolutely no idea what this was," she said. "I had never even heard of the sport of wheelchair rugby. I didn't know much about it and I was thinking that, because the players were quadriplegic, the sport would possibly be slow.

"Well, in getting to know the players and the sport, it has totally opened my eyes. It is a fast-paced sport, it's a high-contact sport. And I'm always somewhat amazed at the ability some of these players have."

Last year, the Navigators were a victory away from qualifying for the national tournament.

"Our goal is absolutely to get there this year," said Myers, a physical therapist and athletic trainer.

The players are proud of their accomplishments, not just as quadriplegic athletes, but simply as athletes.

"Playing this," said Renee Williams, wife of Navigator Brad Williams, "just gives Brad something to do which he absolutely loves, which is being an athlete."

It does more than that, according to Tom Hamill, the U.S. Quad Rugby Association commissioner.

"The camaraderie of a shared team and sport helps the players to learn techniques for their lives from other players," he said. "Many players come to the sport and have new incentive to pursue school and careers."

Most of the Navigators were athletic before their accidents. Wright, for example, played soccer, basketball and baseball at Narraguagus High in Harrington.

"There weren't too many sports I couldn't conquer," Wright said. "I couldn't conquer golf, but, hey, who can?"

Williams, a senior supervisor for communications at the Portland Police Department, played softball and golf. He loved the outdoors and still hunts and fishes.

"Brad has a real zest for life," Renee Williams said. "He really just enjoys doing stuff and being involved in things. You can't tell him he can't do something, then he'll find a way to do it."

Myers said playing quad rugby has opened doors many players thought were closed.

"It is a great outlet for them," she said. "This is something that allows these athletes to get back into sports, which is something a lot of them never thought they'd be able to do.

"It's a great way to stay fit and to have all the other benefits you get from playing sports."

Quad rugby originated in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and was developed by three Canadians as an alternative to wheelchair basketball. It was originally called "murderball" because of its aggressive nature and frequent collisions by the athletes.

The game was introduced to the United States in 1981, and the U.S. Quad Rugby Association was formed in 1988 with only four teams. Thirty-six teams and 386 athletes now compete in the USQRA, with five developmental teams as well.

The season runs from October to April, with this year's national championships in Phoenix.

Quad rugby got its start in Maine in the mid-1990s with a Bangor-based team named the Maine Roadrunners. Wright played for the Roadrunners, as did current Casco Bay players Mike Raye, Perry Grant and Bill Bouffard.

The Roadrunners started out strong, with a large roster and success playing in tournaments.

But, said Wright, "after a while, the guys got tired of it."

Bouffard, who was making weekly drives to Bangor from his home in Lewiston, tried to get a team started in the Portland area. In 1998 the Navigators received some corporate support from UnumProvident Corp. and attempted to form a stronger team.

"We tried to combine the two teams," said Bouffard, meaning the Roadrunners and Navigators. "Very quickly, the two teams fell apart."

In 1999 the Navigators had only four players: Bouffard, Wright, Raye and Grant. "We went 6-29 that year," said Wright.

They returned the next year, added a couple of Canadian players and showed marked improvement. Last year, playing with six players, they finished second in the region.

"Now we have nine guys," said Bouffard, the unofficial team historian. "We have a good group of guys."

Players must have some combination of upper and lower extremity impairment to participate. Most have sustained spinal injuries and have some type of quadriplegia.

Players, who are strapped into their wheelchairs, receive a numerical classification based on their impairment, ranging from a .5 (the most impairment) to a 3.5 (the least).

"Your higher-point guys will be your ballhandlers, your offensive players," said Myers. "Where your lower-point guys tend to be more defensive-type players. There's definitely a strategy involved, similar to basketball."

Their abilities vary by their disabilities. Some have more function with their arms and can move more quickly. Those are usually the offensive players and their wheelchairs are designed for speed.

Less mobile players are usually defensive players and their wheelchairs are rigged with large fenders or bumpers.

"You want to be as large as you can be and take up as much space as you can," Bouffard said. "My job (as a defender) is to get in the way and tie people up."

The game is played on a regulation-size basketball court. Each team consists of four players whose classifications cannot exceed 8.0.

The object is to cross the goal line while maintaining full control of the ball. Of course, that's easier said than done because the defensive team can crowd the defensive key - which measures 8 feet across by 1.75 meters deep - with three players.

"It's not easy," Wright said. "Very seldom do you get a chance to run a play in this sport."

That's because everyone is crashing into each other.

Myers, in addition to her coaching duties, still serves as trainer. She said she has her share of injuries to attend to in each match.

"Most of the guys can't feel," Myers said. "They have no sensation, so finger injuries are prevalent."

Regardless, said Wright, the biggest adjustment a player has to make is mental, not physical.

"When I first started, my mind outraced my body," he said. "My mind was telling me to do what my body couldn't do. After a while, you get used to it."

Being around each other helps. Bouffard, 40, said that when he first joined the Roadrunners, his wheelchair had projections on the wheels (to help him move) and arm rests. He eventually took both off.

"Being around those other people you learn so much," said Bouffard, who was injured in a motorcycle accident in 1980, days before the start of his senior year at Lewiston High. "I had never been around other people in wheelchairs, not active people (in wheelchairs), anyway."

The Navigators often put on demonstrations at local schools, which include games against able-bodied teams.

"We have never lost to an able-bodied team," said Myers, proudly. "And we usually beat them by a fair amount, which is eye-opening."

The sport itself is like that. Watching the players compete has certainly opened Myers eyes.

"This is all very rewarding for me," she said. "You can't help but be appreciative of what you have and, of course, the players are very appreciative of any time that you volunteer to them.

"It's a positive experience, and I haven't met anyone who hasn't been hooked once they've seen it."

Staff Writer Mike Lowe can be contacted at 791-6422 or at: mlowe@pressherald.com 

How to Contact us | Quad Rugby Central Index

Home Page | Rugby Calendar | Sports Page | Score Board | USQRA Zone | Files