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

Collision course in togetherness

Steve Hummer, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The front of Mike Wyatt's wheelchair used to be a vivid red, white and blue. He had it painted that way just for these Paralympics. Wasn't that a nice gesture? A fruitless, wasted one; but very nice all the same.
Mike Wyatt, class 2.5 from San Diegos Sharp Shadow
Might as well paint the car, too, just before entering it in a demolition derby.

All that's visible on his chair now, midway through the Games, is a collection of gouges and scratches, dings and grooves. Every one tells the story of another head-on collision in the name of sport.

Officially, his game is known as wheelchair rugby, the only quadriplegic team sport on the Paralympic menu. it's played four-on-four on a basketball floor. The point of the game is very simple: On offense, to advance the ball between two cones at one end of the floor; and on defense, to stop that from happening by almost any means necessary. Throw the ball out there and let the metal-on-metal combat begin. Kinda like the good ol' boys at Talladega.

When invented, the sport was called "murderball," which was a graphic attempt at summarizing the contact involved. Seems like the kind of name that would sell -- especially on the 6 o'clock news -- but it had to be softened up a bit to attract more of a following. Murderball might have been just ahead of its time.

Wheelchair rugby is a demonstration sport in these Paralympics, destined for full-medal status in Sydney. I don't know what's next in the evolution of these Games. Paralympic bullfighting, perhaps? Or the Paralympic Tough Man contest, maybe?

It's just that rough -- and occasionally tumble -- nature of wheelchair rugby that appeals to its practitioners. If you've got to be in a wheelchair, might as well go out and hit somebody with it. That is only natural.

"I like hitting people, and getting hit," said Cliff Chunn, the 17-year-old Tennessean who is the junior member of the U.S. team. A neurological disease has played havoc with Chunn's body. He is one of the slightest men on the floor. But he always seems in the middle of the play. "I love this game," he says.

What this U.S. wheelchair team seems to share most with the world's other rugby types is a devotion to the cause. There is something about a good scrum that brings people together.

"I have a real passion for this game," said Wyatt, a U.S. co-captain here and member of the 1995 world championship team. "I even love to practice. I didn't even mind it when I was driving 500 miles a week to practice" before moving to the San Diego area to be closer to his club team.

In the first chapter of his life, Wyatt was a wrestler and linebacker-fullback in high school. He still wears his wrestling shoes today when playing. "Some habits are hard to break," said Wyatt, speaking both of the footwear and the physical outlet.

When a few drinks after work in 1988 turned into a catastrophic car accident, Wyatt at first turned to wheelchair rugby as a release for his anger over his condition. But he outgrew that. Now, he's a frequent guest speaker at schools, offering powerful testimony to the dangers of drinking and driving. And he's also a more complete competitor.

"This winning is great, but the friendships I've made is what really matters. These guys [his teammates] are my best friends," Wyatt said. That won't scratch or dent, no matter where he's hit.

Return to Articles

How to Contact us | Quad Rugby Central Index