Article/Quad Rugby - Wild World of Wheelchair Rugby

UNITED STATES QUAD RUGBY ASSOCIATION

Team USA

3.5 Joe Soares
3.0 Brad Updegrove
2.5 Mike Wyatt
2.0 Dave Gould
2.0 Cliff Chunn
1.5 Bill Renje
1.0 Dave Ceruti
0.5 Eddie Crouch

Wild world of wheelchair rugby an instant hit

By Tom Watson, USA TODAY

ATLANTA - They had to change the name from murderball to rugby to get it in the Paralympics, but the original name still aptly describes the high-contact wheelchair sport that is drawing ever-larger crowds.

Played for the first time as a demonstration sport in Atlanta, rugby has earned official inclusion in the 2000 Sydney Paralympics.

Wheelchair rugby is a hybrid of basketball and football played with a volleyball. Canadians and Americans invented the sport in 1979. Play begins at one end of the court like basketball as a four-person team moves the ball downcourt in their lap, passing forward and backward.

Riding in reinforced chairs with guard rails that bear the nicks and scratches of combat, players are free to smash into one another as they try to block and score a point by carrying the ball over the 8-meter strip of boundary line inside the key.

In addition to providing some of the Paralympics most intense and dramatic competition, rugby quickly is dispelling any notions of disabled athletes as reticent and fragile.

''The hitting was the dynamite attraction for me,'' says U.S. ballcarrier Joe Soares of Tampa, who contracted polio as a toddler. ''I always loved contact sports, but was never able to play them because of my disability. This is my NFL.''

Adds teammate Bill Renje, a sportswriter with The Daily Southtown in Chicago: ''When I first heard of it, I thought it was a cheesy way to get people in wheelchairs involved with sports, but I was hooked right away when I saw the intensity and contact. You have to be a little wild and obnoxious to play this sport.''

Though players often are knocked out of their chairs, the U.S. team trainer says serious injury is rare. Flat tires and sprung spokes are common, halting play just long enough to tilt a player in his chair and pop on a new wheel as the rock tune We Will Rock You pumps the excitement.

The unbeaten U.S. squad, chosen from tryouts in Colorado Springs last April, appears to be the best in the world, trouncing Paralympic opponents by an average 17.5 points. Team USA plays for the gold at Sunday's final, a sold-out game at Atlanta Metropolitan College, against New Zealand or Canada. The USA advanced to the final by beating England 38-25 Thursday night.

While other teams feature standout scorers, the USA plays as a close unit, efficiently executing plays while holding down opponents with an aggressive defense.

''We know where each other is going to be and what we're going to do,'' Soares says. ''We like to press and get a lead and then drop back in the key and defend. We pride ourselves on being able to stop the other team.''

Though his team was eliminated by the USA Wednesday 31-18 after four eight-minute quarters, Australian player Peter Lock was elated.

''We've only been playing this game for six years, so we're still learning,'' says Lock, 24, from Sydney. ''We came closer to them than any other team so far and it feels great knowing that we can take it to the Americans.''

By Tom Watson, USA TODAY

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