Quad Rugby/Story - St. Louis finds new blood post Murderball

UNITED STATES QUAD RUGBY ASSOCIATION

January, 2006

St. Louis finds new blood post Murderball
By Sue Tucker & Kerri Morgan

In October 2005, the St. Louis Rugby Rams hosted the 2nd Annual Halloween Havoc in which the Chicago Bears came out the victors over TNT by 1 point. What is possibly more exciting than a new force in the Heartland, is the growth of teams post release of Murderball.

Braun (in white) at Pasadena

The St. Louis Rugby Rams have been searching for new players for the past 3 years and had been virtually unsuccessful until this season. Three new players emerged for St. Louis following the release of the documentary “Murderball”. Newcomer Derrick Helton (2.0) from central Missouri heard about it after watching MTV and sought out the team captains of the Rugby Rams. Within 1 month of contacting the team he was headed out to a camp in Indianapolis and then to Summer Blast in California. Unfortunately for the Rams, Helton was drawn to sunny (and warm) Arizona by the players from U of A. Helton is missed by the Rams but wherever he plays he will have an impact on the USQRA and beyond in the future.

After the Rams’ annual Halloween Havoc, Helton moved to Arizona and the Rams were fortunate to recruit 2 more new players who had also caught the fever after seeing “Murderball”. Clayton Braun (0.5) and Jason DeSalvo (0.5) had previously not given much thought to playing sports post injury. Braun was injured in a diving accident 2 years ago and DeSalvo was injured in a diving accident 15 years ago.

DeSalvo (far right in white) sets a pick on Brian Muniz of the Chicago Bears.

Braun came to the Halloween Havoc tournament to watch and by the next week was a practicing maniac—he has only been playing for 3 months and he is already having an impact on the floor. DeSalvo saw “Murderball” over the summer and was intrigued, but not enough to seek out the team. Support staff member Jayme Eggum recruited DeSalvo at a community exercise facility in St. Louis in late October and shortly afterward DeSalvo was practicing with the team and traveling to tournaments. The Rams also saw the return of seasoned player Paul Rickman (0.5) who had been absent from rugby for 4 years.

The Rams have been fortunate to see growth within the team this past year. Last season we played with 5-6 players and so far this season we have seen that number grow to 10-11. It has been great to see the growth of other teams as we travel to tournaments this season. Seeing Indy start their team back up with a long line of players on the bench waiting to get in on the action is an awesome sight, as well as seeing other teams around the league bring both new faces and old to the court. We can only hope that other teams around the league are also experiencing what we have here—a renewed interest in quad rugby.

2005-2006 Rugby Rams at Chicago Bears Heartland Challenge 2005

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