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Wheelers on the warpath
Lack of fans, funding only handicaps still hampering Harlequins
By Jeremy Johnson
jjohn308@mscd.edu

Photo by Jenn LeBlanc • jkerriga@mscd.edu Harlequin high-pointer Chance Sumner searches for an open player downcourt as Adam Scaturro attempts to defend the pass during a practice session at the Auraria Event Center gymnasium Oct. 4. The Harlequins were sharpening their skills before heading to Las Vegas with hopes of improving on their No. 5 national ranking. Several members of the team aspire to represent the United States in the Paralympic games of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Focused, quiet and hunched over in chairs resembling the renegade machines of Mad Max, the Denver Harlequins wheelchair rugby team rolled onto the court for a little four-on-four team practice Oct. 4 at the Auraria Events Center.

Newcomers and seasoned veterans alike – informally called murderballers – began talking smack, crowding and pinning each other in steely scrums. Though it was just a practice event, the intensity in the players’ eyes suggested it meant more.

“Whistle,” shouted one player while the rest converged into a clanging frenzy awaiting the inbound pass.

“Wheelchair rugby is just like a speed chess match,” Chance Sumner said. “If one guy does one thing, you have to counter-move.”

Sumner is one of the best murderballers in the nation. Along with rugby veteran and Harlequins’ captain Jason Reiger, Sumner was part of the recent national gold-medal U.S. team in the Wheelchair Rugby World Championships in New Zealand. In a sport that ranks players’ skill level from .5 to 3.5, Sumner is a 3.0.

Wheelchair rugby guarantees parity on the floor by limiting each team’s skill levels. A team may have two or three players with 3 or 3.5 skill level on the sideline, but teams are only permitted to start eight total points among the four players on the floor at all times.

The objective of the game is as old as sport itself – one ball, two teams and two goals. A team begins play with an inbound pass from the opposite end of the court, then attempts to drive down the court using a series of blocks, picks and passes to penetrate two cones on the far end representing the opposing goal.

“The game is all mental, really,” Adam Scaturro said. “You can beat people without having too much speed. It’s just physics and geometry.”

The defensive strategy of the game is the basic geometric concept taught in high school that the fastest way between two points is a straight line. The better defensive players find that line quickly and propel themselves at the perfect angle in hopes of blocking the ball-handler.

If the line is correct, then the laws of physics take over. Chairs collide with loud, cracking sounds. Players are thrown from their seats and would be propelled out of their chairs altogether if not for seatbelts securing them to their chairs. Occasionally, players are knocked over onto their backs, where they lie and wait to be turned back over. In most cases, the player is set back on their wheels and the game quickly resumes.

“You’re going to get bumps and bruises,” Josh Stapen said. “It’s competitive, but I think we’re more competitive because we’re all disabled and we have a chip on our shoulder. We all have something to prove.”

The Harlequins may have a chip on their shoulder, but the biggest chip they carry is the constant struggle to maintain a team. Since the sport is limited to quadriplegics, so too is their talent pool.

And since they are the only team in the state, the Harlequins must travel hundreds, even thousands of miles to compete with other national and international teams, straining their finances.

"I can’t say enough about (wheelchair rugby) really,” Stapen said. “It gives me something to strive for and it gives me passion. But I’d love to see more sponsors for it.”

Skill levels vary just as individual injuries vary. While a number of athletes are disabled due to accidents that resulted in spinal damage, others have been disabled from birth by diseases such as cerebral palsy.

“When you have an injury, you have a lot of things taken from you,” said Regier, whose neck was broken in a car accident 10 years ago. “But rugby is something I could compete at in a high level. It’s given me a lot of independence and it’s allowed me to expand on what I thought was possible.”

Joy Roudeau is one of the Harlequin’s victims of cerebral palsy and one of the few female members of the co-ed team.

“(Wheelchair rugby) definitely opened my eyes to the capabilities of what I can do as a handicapped person,” Roudeau said. “Anything you can do able-bodied you can do in a wheelchair,” she said.

That theme is a common one among these athletes. The Harlequins have the same goals and drive as other athletes. They strive to win and to achieve success on the highest, international platform. When they take to the court, they have only one objective in mind – winning.

“Being disabled is an overwhelming situation to deal with all at once,” Sumner said. “It’s like being reborn, and it’s good to find something that you can focus your energy on.”

“For the time that you’re out there in your chair, you’re not thinking about anything else except winning and playing,” he said.