Quad Rugby/Story - Mountain and Heartland Sectionals

UNITED STATES QUAD RUGBY ASSOCIATION

April 2006

Mountains in the Heartland?
By John Ershek

Have you heard about the latest geological upheaval? It wasn’t a hurricane, tornado, volcano or even an earthquake (although I’m sure some of the hits registered on the Richter Scale). There were mountains in the heartland. Right in downtown Montgomery, Alabama, just this past March. But you don’t have to hurry to seek shelter or to find your local place of worship. These mountains were all the Murderballers who made their way into this quaint, southern city to compete in the USQRA Mountain and Heartland Sectionals.

The Montgomery Therapeutic Recreation Center, Coratio Vinson, Fred Thomas and their expert and friendly staff rescued the USQRA from a potentially embarrassing situation. The Mountain Section was almost seeded for the first time I can remember, by a vote of the Board of Directors. The Heartland Section also received the benefit of their generous hosting of two sectionals at the same time. The food and the hospitality easily lived up to its legendary status. Thank you, guys and gals.

Also, thanks to all the USQRA post season sponsors this year. First our returning sponsors, PVA, Coloplast, Eagle, Vesco and Spinergy. You have been great supporters of this cause and enough cannot be said about our gratitude to you all. We are in debt to our new sponsors, too. We lost several of them from the year before, but the following companies stepped up to take their place. They are CCS Medical, THINKFilm, Therapeutic Alliances and Fusion Medical. Every single player, coach, support staff, referee, classifier and team owes a great deal of gratitude to them. We could not do this every year without their support. Please make sure to visit all their websites to learn more about them.

There were six Mountain teams and seven Heartland teams competing for eight spots at the upcoming National tournament in Austin, TX. The rest of the story will be broken down into two parts…the Mountain Sectional…and then the Heartland Sectional.

Mountain Sectional

The Mountain Sectional featured the following teams in order of their seeding; Phoenix Heat, Texas Stampede, Shepherd Smash, Pasadena Texans, U of A Wildcats and the Utah Scorpions.

Starting play on Friday, the first three surprises occurred. Utah beat Shepherd by 5 points, Shinichi Shimikawa of the undefeated Phoenix Heat was nowhere to be found (he was back in his home country for the Japanese Nationals), and a lot of chairs were determined to have illegal specifications, making players scramble to find back up chairs they could use. Things returned to normal briefly as the next four games went according to seed as Phoenix and Texas beat up on their competitors. The second to last upset of the day saw U of A beat the Pasadena Texans, 51-24. The last upset of the day was all the players with illegal chairs. They were all upset at the debate over legal specs. The furious pace of the equipment guys trying to make corrections went well into the night. This was going to be interesting…very interesting.

Saturday saw the Shepherd team once again upset, this time by U of A, 58-31. They were turning into the Shepherd Smashed! All the other games went according to seed, setting up the most anticipated game of the weekend, Texas versus Phoenix. However, there was one more complication that took place. Brent Poppen, of the Phoenix Heat broke a finger while playing in their second game of the day against Shepherd. I guess they finally did some smashing, of poor Brent’s finger. With no Shimikawa and now no Poppen for Sunday, what would the Heat do?

Sunday came to see the higher seeds win both first games. The Wildcats beat the Scorpions 47-34, meaning U of A was going to Nationals. The Texans beat Shepherd to earn the second spot at Division II. Texas versus Phoenix handed the Heat their first (and as would be found out at Nationals) their only loss of the season, a 1-0 forfeit. Why Scott Hogsett didn’t let his bench play and gain valuable post season experience may never be known. It was only a 6.0 line up, but surely Coach Gumby, and Texas would have made the game competitive on the court once they had built an insurmountable lead. Anyway, now DI was decided, too. Phoenix and Texas were in from the Mountain Section. Surely Phoenix would have Shimikawa back by then, but would Brent be ready to play? It would be a big blow to the Heat’s chance at a first ever National Championship without him.

Heartland Sectional

The Heartland Sectional featured the following teams in order of their seeding, Lakeshore Demolition, Kentucky TNT, Great Lakes Storm, Chicago Bears, St. Louis Rams, Pittsburgh Steelwheelers and Jackson Jags. There was also a mystery rugby player lurking for just the right moment to strike…(don’t you all wish you were so lucky?)…

There were no surprises on Friday, as Lakeshore, TNT, Chicago and Great Lakes all went undefeated. There was going to be plenty of drama to come though. Chicago had upset TNT earlier in the season in St. Louis, so TNT had something to prove. Great Lakes had beaten Chicago in a 1 point controversial overtime win at the Heartland Regional, so Chicago had something to prove. Great Lakes wanted to prove the win was no fluke and make their first ever National Tournament. Kirkland was down briefly, but he would be ready to try to lead the demolition to the championship.

Saturday started with St. Louis beating a much improved Jackson Jags team. Let me say congratulations to the comeback the Jags made just by fielding a team this season following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Many of their players came from New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Well done! TNT beat Chicago going away by 10 points in the first greatly anticipated game of the day. They would have their revenge. Lakeshore beat Chicago and Great Lakes by identical scores of 51-35. Then the TNT dispatched of a much tougher than anticipated Great Lakes team, 38-35 to earn a spot against Lakeshore in the final and a trip to DI along with them.

Sunday’s play started with St. Louis beating Pittsburgh (who were missing two of their starters) to earn their seeding. Now the second most anticipated game of the weekend would feature Great Lakes versus Chicago. The game was close throughout the first half. By the fourth period it looked as though Great Lakes would win, leading by 5 with less than 4 minutes to play. But some great defense by Chicago proved to be their undoing, as the Bears tied the game at the end of the period to push it to another overtime between the two combatants. This time Chicago prevailed 61-60, but Great Lakes had nothing to be ashamed of as they looked forward to their first trip to the big show.

The final was anticlimactic, as Lakeshore beat TNT, 42-36 while running several different line ups, earning their bench the valuable experience that was not gained in the other Sectional final being held across town. The Demolition was the Heartland Sectional champ for the second year in a row and looked ready to compete with Phoenix and Texas for the DI National Championship.

The AGM this year had a proposal that passed that will allow the USQRA Board to assign post season tournaments, so this situation won’t happen again. While this is certainly a step in the right direction, it is even more important that the apathy that seems to have crept into the league becomes a distant memory. Where are all the teams that used to line up to host these events? Have we all been lulled to sleep by the success the film has created in publicizing our sport? Now is the time to roll up our sleeves and work harder than ever, so we don’t lose the momentum we have gained. The next geological upheaval needs to be the thunderous applause of mountains of people filling the stands to watch this great sport being played. We can make it happen if we all want it badly enough to do it and not just talk about it.

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