Quad Rugby/Story - Speed Rules in Tampa

UNITED STATES QUAD RUGBY ASSOCIATION

January, 2007

Speed Rules in Tampa
By Justin Stark

Tampa's 2.0 Justin Stark looks
for help as Shinichi Shimakawa
(3.0) eyes the ball.

While most of the country was battling snow storms and cold fronts, eight teams from around the world migrated to Tampa and the 70 degree temperatures for the 15th Annual Coloplast International Wheelchair Rugby Tournament on January 19-21, 2007. Competition was fierce and the rugby community was eagerly anticipating some of the games that were going to be on display.

Friday started off with a bang as the #3 seeded Denver Harlequins needed 4 overtimes to put away a Canadian squad led by all-tournament class 2.0, Dave Willsie. The second game of the day featured the debut of the Portland Pounders and their blazing fast lineup led by Canadian import Ian Chan and U.S. National team member Will Groulx. The Pounders squared off against the #4 ranked Hoveround Gunners. Portland showed that they were as good as they were on paper as they gave Hoveround their worst loss of the season, 40-29. The remainder of the day didn’t produce any surprises and ended with the #1 seed Phoenix Heat beating the tournament host Tampa Generals, whom unsuccessfully attempted to counter Phoenix’s speed with their ball controlled offense.

3.0 Oliver Picht from Germany
tries to prevent a pass by 2.0
Dave Jenkins of Hoveround.

The second day would be known as the day of upsets as four higher seeded teams suffered defeats. After Germany dispatched Portland, the second upset of the day was when Nick Springer led his Hoveround Gunners to a 41-36 victory over the Texas Stampede. Hoveround jumped out to a 1st quarter lead and maintained it throughout the 1st half. The second half is where Springer displayed his National team form and provided Hoveround with 12 of his game high 19 goals. Upset number three came at the expense of Hoveround as those tenacious 2.0’s from Canada managed to squeeze by with a 1 goal victory. The final game of the day was a preview of the upcoming Mountain sectional between Denver and Texas. Denver jumped out quickly and led after 1 by a score of 10-9. In the 2nd quarter, Denver began to pull away and at one point led 15-12, however the experienced Texas team fought hard to climb back into the game and finished the half only being down 18-17. Despite Texas using a loophole in the rules which let them run an 8.5 lineup, the Harlequins, led by tournament MVP Chance Sumner were determined to send Texas a message and went on to secure a 38-33 victory. This put Denver in the final against Phoenix, while Texas and Germany were set to square off in the 3rd/4th placing game.

After witnessing some surprises on Saturday, no one knew what to expect from the final day’s games. The day began with Hoveround defeating their interstate rival Tampa Generals, and the Canadian Deuces shocking Portland in a 1 goal thriller. In a rematch from pool play, Germany was looking for redemption against the Stampede, whom beat them by 2 in their earlier meeting. Texas would prove that their first game was no fluke and beat Germany by a score of 35-29 to finish in 3rd place. That left the defending Coloplast and USQRA National Champion Phoenix Heat to take on the Denver Harlequins.

#8 Ross Morrison gets ready to
pass the ball to his teammate
Chance Sumner.

This was a classic match of Phoenix’s speed vs. Denver’s size. Phoenix would waste no time and jumped out to a 3 goal lead to start the game. Denver took the initial blow and fought to get back within one at the 4 minute mark in the 1^st quarter. Phoenix would prove to be way to dominant and closed the 1st quarter with a 4 goal run which was capped by phenom, Shinichi Shimakawa stealing an inbounds pass and scoring with no time left in the period to give Phoenix the 15-8 lead. Denver would stop the bleeding, but could not gain any ground on the Heat who went on to win 48-40. Special thanks to Coloplast, Tampa General Rehabilitation Center, and Blazesports Tampa Bay for making this event possible.

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