Quad Rugby/Story - CT Invitational

UNITED STATES QUAD RUGBY ASSOCIATION

February 2004

Slammin', Jammin'
It's Bone-Jarring, But Quad Rugby Attracts Players Who Push Past Limits Of Wheelchair

February 22, 2004
By JOSH KOVNER, Courant Staff Writer

FARMINGTON -- Rick Famiglietti wheels around a screen from Tom Branchaud, the ball in his lap, and pushes hard toward a narrow hole in the Jets' goal-line stand.

Famiglietti smashes his wheelchair through the opening between two glaring Jets players with a bone-jarring, metallic crash. He crosses the goal line in the gym at New Horizons Village and the zebra-shirted ref's whistle shrills.

Famiglietti's Connecticut Jammers quad ruby team is making a game of it, though the better-conditioned United Spinal Association Jets from New York will win this first-round game.

Later, in a break between games at a regional tournament Saturday co-hosted by Gaylord Hospital of Wallingford, the 39-year-old Famiglietti describes just what quad rugby, and all the associated travel and exposure to others with the same lot in life, has done for him.

"Better fitness, better health, better strength - and yeah, it's an outlet. I look forward to pounding my chair into someone," said Famiglietti, an East Haven resident. He suffered a spinal cord injury in a motorcycle accident in the late 1980s. He now works as a transition coordinator, helping people who are leaving nursing homes and returning to the community.

"When I started traveling with the Jammers in 1991, I learned a lot from the other people with the same injuries I had. It was things I needed for daily life, like a new way of getting out of the chair. Back then, I never thought I'd live alone in my own house. Now I do, and I learned a lot of it from other people on the road."

Famiglietti rolls back into the New Horizons lobby, where several Jammers are talking with coach Elton "Bud" Harvey, a lawyer and rugby player, and Todd Munn, a recreation therapist at Gaylord and director of the hospital's sports association. Gaylord has sponsored the Jammers since 1996.

The wisecracks begin: Branchaud, 33, of Bristol, an analyst at The Hartford in Simsbury, looks at the doughnut powder smeared on Famiglietti's legs and the front of his green, No. 72 jersey and wonders how someone can possibly make such a mess.

Famiglietti then reminds Branchaud of a time a woman started to hit on him when the Jammers were playing on the road.

"And you told her you had to go play a quad rugby game," Famiglietti said.

"Let's keep those stories to ourselves," says Branchaud, who has played for the Jammers for nearly 12 years. Injured in a car accident, he joined after finishing his rehabilitation at Gaylord.

"Having played all these years, I've seen a lot of guys come and go.," Branchaud said. "They tend to start out timid. Maybe they don't think they can travel for a weekend, do all the things they have to do and still play. But we take them in and try to make them feel comfortable. The new guys learn from us. After they practice for a while, you can see the apprehension start to leave them."

The players all have impairments to at least three extremities. Most have suffered cervical spinal cord injuries and are quadriplegic. Some on the United Spinal Association team are veterans. The organization used to be known as the Eastern Paralyzed Veterans Association.

There are a total of 80 teams around the world; 40 in the United States Quad Rugby Association.

The game is played on a basketball court, with four to a side. Each player receives a number rating based on his physical ability, with 3.5 being the most mobile and 0.5 being the least. Teams can have a maximum of eight rating points on the court at once.

There were moments of grace as the Jammers faced the Jets in the early game of the six-team tournament. A player would break free from the pack and the only sound would be the hum of the rubber rims and the bouncing of the white volley ball as he raced to catch up to the lead pass and glided across the line for the score.

And then there were vicious head-on collisions between wheelchairs that sounded like gunshots as the defense tried to steal the ball from the offense.

Quad rugby is one of a growing number of adaptive sports. Facilities like Gaylord and groups like the United Spinal Association offer basketball, archery, golf, hand cycling, kayaking, scuba diving, sailing, skiing, tennis and others.

"There's a lot of people in wheelchairs who don't even know they can play rugby, or hockey, or compete in air-rifle shooting," said Felicia Mosley, sports and recreation coordinator for the United Spinal Association. "There's a soaring program. You can even fly."

Off the court, the Jammers are encouraged to share the strength and wisdom they have gotten from the game.

"We have our guys come and give demonstrations to people who are still in rehab," Munn said. "They see what these guys have overcome and they learn that what has happened to them doesn't have to be the end of the world. People tell me it's opened their eyes when they see these guys pushing the envelope."

Harvey, who has coached the Jammers for two years, plays for the Wallingford-based Connecticut Greys, a 35-and-over rugby team. Several of the club's members were at the tournament Saturday helping out. Once a year, the Greys play the Jammers in a wheelchair rugby game.

"We have yet to win," Harvey said.

"Our biggest struggle," Harvey said of the Jammers, "is that we don't have enough guys. We need more quads to come out and play. Once you do, you'll enjoy it."

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