UNITED STATES QUAD RUGBY ASSOCIATION

February 2004

Spokes Ableman at Conveen
By Ed Hooper 

"Hey, Helmet Head, has hell frozen over?  Has every last cow come home?  Has there been yet another election fix in the State of Florida?  What’s up with the Sportsmanship Award at Conveen?”  Asked my wise-guy friend Spokes Ableman.

“What do you mean, Spokes?”

“What do I mean?  This is the hanging chad of hanging chads.  This has got “fix” tattooed all over it.  I’d love to see those ballots to see who voted for who.”

“I thought the referees chose Sportsmanship, although our ballot gave us a vote.”

“Well,” Spokes replied, “as they said it 2000, that’s history.  It does give one pause, however, to question the whole process.”  

“Ok, so you’re wasting time on a done deal.  Let’s move forward.”

“Good God, HH, how many times must I tell you that it’s about the people?”  Spokes asked with a wink of feigned disgust.

And continued, “Belgium deserved a standing ovation in and of themselves.  But Scott Burrows was a gang of one in that effort.  You know, with all due respect to the gutty performance turned in by Mark Zupan, Ludwig was my MVP.  Come to think of it, that whole damn team should have been MVP.”

“Everyone had the same reaction, Spokes, including the Lions.  They couldn’t believe how well they had done.”

“What the heck does a Flemish Lion look like anyway?” Spokes asked.

“Flemish is a language and the Lion is, of course, a symbol of courage, not a type of lion, Spokes” I replied.

“Yeah, I guess there are no real lions indigenous to Detroit either.  Yet they have the Lions.  Next to Cub and Red Sox fans – those are long suffering fans, long suffering…”

Spokes abruptly changed the subject.  “So who made your schedule, HH, the Marques de Slam Man?  You had a gauntlet to go through to get to the big game.  Lucky for you Texas and Germany were short some key players in your pool.”

“All we can do is play the games.  You didn’t hear Belgium complaining, did you?”

“No, those overachieving, good role-model-types sure screw up a good chance to whine,” Spokes said with a grin.

“You know, Spokes, there was some fantastic rugby played in Tampa over the weekend.  The Kiwis seem poised to make a lot of noise at the Paralympics later this year in Athens.”

“You think so, HH?  Don’t you think Canada, the USA and Australia will have something to say about?”

“Of course.  And I wouldn’t leave Great Britain or even Belgium out of the mix considering the confidence they must have gained.  And maybe even Japan.  Who knows?  But the Kiwis, if they stay focused for 32 minutes, are looking extremely tough right now.  We’ll see what they do in Lakeshore.”

“Yep, they sure put a can of Whoop-something on you Lightning boys,” Spokes chided.

“We self-destructed.  We’re a much better team than that game showed.”

“It looked painful, I’ll tell you that,” Spokes said.

“It was.  Will you please move on?”

“Sure – didn’t know I was on a nerve,” Spokes smirked.

“Speaking of painful, HH, how about the Tampa guys with their starters watching from the substitution box during the final minutes as their 5 goal lead against Texas turned into a 1 goal loss.  Out of timeouts, they could only watch as the turnovers came in bunches and the wheels came tumbling off.  Ouch!”

“Are you going to talk about US teams, Ableman?”

“What, are you and Tampa and Texas from another country or something?”

“Just continue.”

“Ok,” Spokes said matter-of-factly. 

“What about those Whackers from San Diego beating the Aussies in OT and losing by a whisker to the Flemish Four?  That game would have put them in the finals.”

“I’m not sure what happened to Australia.  I think that was their only loss.  I didn’t get to see much of them as they were often playing at the same time we were playing,” I replied.

“Well,” Spoke said,  “it still looks like a wide-open race for the National Championship.  Although Lakeshore had a tough tournament, they had a tough tournament last year too which only pissed them off and they mowed through Nationals in April. TNT looks good right now, but they’re not 10 points better than Lakeshore and they’re probably not 3 points worse than the Whackers.  It’s going to boil down to that “any given Sunday” thing, HH.  And you certainly can’t ignore the Quake, Texas, or Phoenix.” 

“We don’t know much about Phoenix this year, Spokes, except that they won Best of the West – winning the close games. 

“When you have great players in the mix like Kirkland, Chun, Chan, Hickling, Dubberly, and guys like Crouch, Lyduck and Hogsett in the trenches, anything can happen.”

Spokes switched gears, “How about the great job done up in Tampa, with special thanks to Coloplast and Tampa General Rehabilitation Center, and, of course, the great group of volunteers which we all know are critical to making a tournament go.  To the refs, who probably have the most thankless job in quad rugby, thanks!  These quads need you even though it’s difficult to appreciate that when they’re on their cell phones making your next optometrist appointment.”  

“Are you nuts, Ableman?”

“What?”

Spokes goes on unfazed, “Ten games decided by 3 points or less, some of the best teams in the world competing.  Great volunteers.  Good food.  Sunny days.  You guys must have been in quad heaven.

“And one last kudos to the Flemish Four, HH.  They didn’t fold in that final game when they were down five at halftime.  They actually fought back and had it down to a one-point game late before finally losing.  Six tough games, four really tough guys.  We could all learn from it.”

“You going to Montgomery, Spokes?”

“Generally, I don’t go North until June, but if the food is as good as I’ve heard…”

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