Overview

Players Homepage for Updates & Announcements

Classification Information for Over 45

Here is a reminder for the deadlines for those turning 45 on or before October 1, 2011:
Players that turn 45 on or before 10/1/11, will need to MAIL their USQRA card and proof of age (copy of driver's license or equivalent) to Trisha Suhr:

Trisha Suhr
2280 SE 35th Place
Portland, OR 97214
TrishaSuhr@aol.com

Your old card must be surrendered to be destroyed. You will be issued an updated card prior to the start of the upcoming season.

Players that turn 45 after 10/1/11 or fail to respond by the deadline will need to have their cards updated at the next tournament they are present at with a USQRA Classification Panel. Again, proof of age with their current card is required to receive an updated card.

Please direct any questions you may have to the new USQRA Head of Classification Paul Sawicki at paulsawicki@hotmail.com.

USQRA Hall of Fame Nominations

Attention all team reps, the USQRA Hall of Fame committee is requesting nominations for the Hall of Fame. All nominations must include a detailed bio of any nominee to be considered, and must be received by February 28th. The Hall of Fame committee will then vote on the nominees and announce any inductees at USQRA Nationals in April.

Please use the nomination form on the quadrugby.com Hall of Fame site as a guideline, but submit all nominations and questions to Brad Mikkelsen at brad@iwrf.com A nominations committee member will then contact you to help further the process. HOF Nomination ballot

Cheers,

Brad Mikkelsen
Chairman, USQRA HOF

Excerpt from newsletter on IWRF rules changes

by Gary Pate, USQRA President

In last month's Full Court Press, we started the conversation about the changes voted on at the IWRF AGM in Vancouver. This month I want to look "in-depth" at a few of the changes. We'll finish up next month, then examine some classification issues. The goal is to start the analysis, have conversations, and get us ready for our annual meeting in April.

1. No More Yellow and Red Cards: The display of the infamous yellow and red cards was ended. The fouls remain the same, the hand signals remain the same, the penalties remain the same...just the cards were eliminated. So far as I know, these were the only fouls with two distinct signals: first make the call and signal with your hands THEN display a card. Superfluous at best, and to some, demeaning. A much needed change that cleans up the game a little.

2. No More "Trap" Rule, No More Stalling: Both of these rules had an apparent origin in a desire to speed-up the game. But, with the adoption of the 40-second clock (and reducing from 15 to 12 seconds the amount of time to cross mid-court), the effect of these rules have been minimized. I am in my third year of officiating and I have never seen either violation called (I know, many of you think I miss most violations!). Regardless, there was truly no dispute in Vancouver about eliminating these penalties from our rulebook.

3. Self-Recovery is Banned: The majority of players who fall are unable to right themselves. Play is stopped and staff come on the court. If it is an offensive player, play picks up from when the clock stopped. But a fallen defensive player produces a re-set. There are players however ("trunk" players) who can right themselves. To keep matters even, this proposal prohibits a trunk player from righting himself. Once he is down, he must stay down until the ref stops play and staff provides assistance. Not only does this protect the playing surface (discussed in our last issue) but it means that all players are treated the same...no additional advantage or disadvantage being caused by the mobility of the fallen player.

None of these three rule changes produced any real controversy in Vancouver. The IWRF did an excellent job of circulating the proposed changes and gave everyone a chance to think them through. While none of these changes are implemented yet in the USQRA, and will be voted on in Birmingham, there is nothing to keep you from experimenting with these changes at your practice, in scrimmages, or at your tournaments. This is a great laboratory to see how changes of this type impact play and affect your team.

Sierra Storm Rumbles in Reno

"Put me in Coach!"

For quad rugby player Jelena Hatfield-Parker, her first tournament with the Sierra Storm was nerve-wracking. She was not worried about the competition or about winning — she was worried about getting in.

*2010 Postseason Auction*

The USQRA will have the postseason auction online, live and real-time. We have integrated eBay’s auction site onto Quadrugby.com. For those of you who are not familiar, eBay is The World's Online Marketplace®, enabling an online platform where millions of items are traded each day.

Whether you are at nationals or at home you will be able to bid on auction items. eBay is easy, fast and secure if you’d like to read more about setting up an account please go to eBay getting started.

Items with descriptions and more details will be posted shortly in the Auction section under players corner. Live auction will start the weekend before national championship finals. E-mails and announcements will go out letting the membership know when the auction is live on the website.

To see all the items you can go to the quadrugby.com store which is this first link below.

shop.ebay.com/auction_for_usqra/m.html

If you'd like to see individual items please click on those items below

Vesco Metal Craft, Quadrugby Wheelchair

Spinergy SLX – Sport Light Extreme wheels

Eagle Tornado QR, Quadrugby Wheelchair

Spinergy SLX – Sport Light Extreme wheels

Melrose, Quadrugby Wheelchair

Spinergy SLX – Sport Light Extreme wheels from Fusion

The Seattle Slam is Smoking this season

April 7, 2010

The Road to Nationals by Cynthia Lynn

This has been a smokin’ season for the Seattle Slam! And it is only going to get hotter when they take off for Nationals next month in Birmingham. Under the direction of Coach “Big Mike” Clay, and co-captains Curt Chapman and Jeremy Hannaford, the team has built itself into a force to be reckoned with.

2010 USQRA Mountain Championships:

Triumph and Heartbreak

The 2010 USQRA Mountain Sectional tournament was hosted at the University of Arizona in Tucson Arizona on February 26-28, 2010. Six teams traveled to UA for the first of four sectional tournaments preparing for the 2010 USQRA National Championships to be hosted in Birmingham Alabama. The 1st and 2nd place teams will be heading to the Division I National Championships, and the 3rd and 4th place teams will compete in the Division II National Championships. This year's Mountain Section teams included top-seeded Phoenix Heat, UA Wildcats, San Antonio Ruff Ryders, Texas Stampede, TIRR Texans and Utah Scorpions. 2009 Mountain Section champions, the Denver Harlequins, opted to transfer to the Heartland Section for this year's postseason. Other Mountain Section teams, the Utah Haggis and the Arizona Outcasts, withdrew from postseason play.

The 2 Division I candidates were clear after day one’s dominating performances by the Heat and Wildcats. The four remaining teams would be left to battle each other for two Division II spots. The first key matchup on day one of the tournament was Utah versus San Antonio. The veteran San Antonio squad led by all tournament 2.5 Gil Garcia defeated Utah by a nine goal margin. The Scorpions were without their starting mid-pointer, Matt Lund, forcing Utah to start rookie player, Ryan Waltyers. San Antonio was able to take advantage of this inexperienced lineup.

Utah's postseason life was rejuvenated on Saturday as the Scorpions were full strength against Gumbie’s Texas Stampede. Josh Wheeler (tournament MVP) led his team to a decisive victory defeating Texas by 10 goals. After this loss, Texas's only chance to make Nationals would be to defeat San Antonio on Sunday by a 10 goal margin. However, San Antonio did not falter in the final and concluded their tournament with a 65-45 win over the Stampede. The TIRR Texans, led by veteran player Steve Kearley (all tournament 1.5), struggled all weekend as they were unable to find a victory. They came together on Sunday in their final with Utah and played with high-energy as they went goal for goal out of the gates. However, they were unable to maintain this intensity and consistency for the duration as they succumbed to the Scorpions 59-41.

The final match on Sunday was between the UA Wildcats and the Phoenix Heat. Since Division I was already decided, the only implication for this game was seeding at Nationals and bragging rights as Mountain Section champions. This circumstance did not detract from the intensity of the game, rather, it was intensified. The Heat started this game, quite appropriately, on fire, but their initial surge was quickly cooled as the gymnasium’s fire alarm was triggered and the fire department was called. Fortunately, it was a false alarm, and the game resumed with the Wildcats taking a lead which they maintained for a majority of the game. Phoenix had managed to scrape back and tie the game late in the second half, but all tournament 1.0 Scott Hogsett and his crew were unable to stop the youthful Wildcats led by Derrick Helton (all tournament 2.0), Chuck Aoki (all tournament 3.5) and Travis Anderson (all tournament 0.5). The University of Arizona Wildcats concluded their weekend with their first-ever win as the Mountain Section champions.

The all tournament team was selected as follows: 0.5 Travis Anderson (UA), 1.0 Scott Hogsett (Phx), 1.5 Steve Kearley (TIRR), 2.0 Derrick Helton (UA), 2.5 Gil Garcia (San Antonio), 3.0 Shinichi Shimakawa (Phx), 3.5 Chuck Aoki (UA) and MVP Josh Wheeler (Utah). Also during the awards ceremony, former UA player, Mark Hansen, was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his long career in wheelchair rugby as an athlete, representative and volunteer. The UA Wildcats and Phoenix Heat will move on to the Division I National championships, and the San Antonio Ruff Ryders and Utah Scorpions will move onto the Division II National championships this April at Lakeshore Foundation in Birmingham Alabama.

A Special Thanks goes out to all the volunteers who helped at this tournament and the following sponsors: Astra Tech, Coloplast, Eagle Sportschairs, Fusion Medical, .Melrose USA, PVA, The Roho Group, Spinergy, TiLite, Top End, Vesco Metal Craft, USQRA, ADE Industries, Blax Hand Rims, U of A Disability Resources, Pima Medical Institute, AZ Spinal Cord Injury Association and a very special thank you to our title sponsor, Rochester Medical.

Article by Gabe Nyrkkanen and Bryan Barten

2010 USQRA Nationals Tournament information

March 10, 2010

The Lakeshore foundation has worked very diligently to provide a secured hotel block of rooms at the Birmingham Marriott with a group rate based on our entire delegation as well as a family and friends package. In doing so, airport and gym transportation (for teams) will only be provided to and from the Birmingham Marriott. This will also be the site of the AGM and banquet.

Spirit of Achievement and Athelete of the Year Nomination Ballot

March 10, 2010

It is that time a year again to nominate people for the Spirit of Achievement an Athlete of the Year. Below is a link to the nomination form. All nominations need to be backed to the President by April 1, 2010. Form

___________________________________________________________

March 3, 2010

Atlantic North Regionals send 4 to Sectionals

Hall of Fame Nomination

February 4, 2010

Attention, all team reps the Hall of Fame committee is requesting nominations for the Hall of Fame. All nominations must include a bio to be considered and received by Feburary 28th.

The Hall of Fame committee will then vote and announce inductees by march 7th.

Please submit all nominations and questions to Brad Mikkelsen

USQRA member chosen for Paralympic Experience Vancouver delegation

January 14, 2009

April Wolfe, team representative for Sierra Storm and USQRRA referee was chosen to be a member of the Paralympic Experience Vancouver delegation. Congratulations April.

Wheelchair rugby puts athletes back on the team By Leslie Wade, CNN Medical producer

November 16, 2009

Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- Talbot Kennedy became a quadriplegic on the last day of high school. He's still an athlete.

Playing rugby has helped Kennedy come to terms with his injury and his new life using a wheelchair.

"I've always been active in sports, and being on a sports team, it's almost like you're part of a family," he says. "It's your second family."

The 2009 US National Team will compete at the 2009 International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Federation Americas Zone Championships in Buenos Aires, Argentina, October 26-31.

Updates will be on Quadrugby.com, Facebook (USQRA Quadrugby) and Twitter @USQRA

US National Team Guestbook/Forum

*Sign up* Here <http://www.quadrugby.com/user/register> to leave the 2009 US National Team a message or to participate in the forum. You will receive a confirmation e-mail that you must reply to activate your username. E-mails are sent immediately but maybe in your junk folder because they are computer generated.

If you have logged in please go Here <http://www.quadrugby.com/forum/26> to leave a message for the 2009 US National Team or to find out the latest news and participate in the forum.

Disabled but undeterred

by Elisabeth Arriero

WAXHAW -- The sounds bursting from the gymnasium suggested a very intense game: conquering bellows, frustrated coach screams, thunderclaps of collisions.

It’s all the components of a typical game, except all the players inside were in wheelchairs.

Marvin Ridge High School is hosting the second annual Carolina Collision Quad Rugby Tournament this weekend.

Individuals with complete and incomplete quadriplegia play on 4 person teams during 8 minute quarters. The goal of the game is to carry a ball through two orange cones for points.

“It’s an outlet,” said Matt Berwick, 22, of Pittsburgh, whose spine was injured in a snowboarding accident 7 years ago and who was playing on the Pittsburgh Steelwheelers team. “A lot of us before we got hurt were in to sports so it’s a natural transition to wheelchair sports.”

Article courtesy of the Enquirer-Journal, Monroe, North Carolina

Eagle Sportschairs

Supports Team USQRA

Eagle Sportschairs, through a fund raising campaign, has designated a percentage of gross sales during the month of August to financially support the United States Quad Rugby Associations National Developmental Team, Team USQRA. Through this donation Eagle Sportschairs has strengthened their long lasting commitment to the USQRA and to the sport of Quad Rugby. The fundraising campaign will be offered during the month of August with funds being generated from gross sales on all Quad Rugby chairs and equipment. All funds received from the campaign will directly support Team USQRA with travel expenses, training camps and competitions. The USQRA is very grateful to Eagle Sportschairs for their fundraising efforts and looks forward to a successful partnership and collaboration in promoting and supporting Team USQRA.

When purchasing from Eagle Sportschairs, please use the Promotion Code of
"EagleUSQRA2009" to ensure your support of the "Team USQRA Fund Raising Campaign".

Yours in Sport,

Robert Murray
Fundraising Committee, Chair
United States Quad Rugby Association

www.eaglesportschairs.com/index.html

Team USA First in World Rankings

The latest IWAS Wheelchair Rugby Ranking was released effective March 1, 2009. This list reflects the results of the European Championships Qualification Tournament held in Dublin, Ireland from February 19 to 23 of this year.

The next issue of the IWAS Wheelchair Rugby Ranking list will be published in November 2009 following the three(3) scheduled Zonal Championships.

Any questions in this regard should be addressed to
Eron Main, Competitions Commissioner, IWRF.

2009 USQRA Annual General Meeting (AGM):

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Links to the Proposals, Proxy and candidate Ballots, General Proxy, and reasons each person is running can be found here:

Links to Proxy & Ballots

Candidates & Reasons for Running

You need to send your in your AGM Ballot (see below) and the General Proxy is available to give a non-attending team a vote in case of friendly amendments, etc. Remember: attending teams are only allowed to hold and vote one General Proxy per team.

Ballots must be filled out completely and sent to Jill Farmer (502-582-7477) before 4/2/09, or for last minute ballots, the Hotel (502.585.9029) before 8:00 AM EDT on 4/2/09. To insure no problems, please get yours done now and sent in.

The names on the ballots are listed in the order in which they were received. Follow the links above and please carefully review the information and get your proxy ballot in to be sure your vote is counted.

>>>>> Clearly mark your choice so we don't have any invalid ballots <<<<<

For those attending the AGM, we will hold our vote at the appropriate time as stated on the agenda, adding in the proxies. Since we have 2 candidates for each position, the ballot will be secret and counted there.

In Sport,

Ed Hooper,

President United States Quad Rugby Association

"Smashing Stereotypes One Hit at a Time"

5593 Cedar Oak Blvd. Sarasota, FL 34233 p.f. 941.924.1804

quadrugby.com

2009 Postseason Auction

AGM Proposals and Board nominations

USQRA CONSTITUTION

Article VIII AMENDMENTS

Section 1

Any proposed amendment to the Constitution must be available to all board members at least two months prior to the meeting at which it will be voted on.

Section 2

Any amendment to become a part of this Constitution shall be passed by a two-thirds majority of the Voting Board Members. It becomes effective immediately upon its passage if not otherwise designated.

Section 3

This Constitution shall be effective when approved by a two-thirds majority of those persons wishing to be governed by membership in the USQRA.

Therefore, all proposals to amend the USQRA Constitution must be received prior to February 2nd, 2009

_______________

USQRA Bylaws

Article X AMENDMENTS,

Section 1

These bylaws may be amended at any annual meeting by a majority vote of the team representatives present and voting.

The proposed amendment shall have been submitted in writing to the Secretary of the USQRA by March 1 preceding the annual meeting.

Section 2

The proposed amendment shall be mailed to all members no later than March 15.

Section 3

The Executive Committee may propose amendments to amendments at the time of the annual meeting without the procedural requirement provided that in each instance the proposed amendment to an amendment has been approved by a majority vote of the Executive Committee and copies are distributed before or during the business session.

< Section 4

Unless otherwise specified, all amendments shall become effective on the first day of July following adoption at the annual meeting.

Therefore all proposals to amend the bylaws must be received no later than March 1, 2009

Any additional proposals for resolutions concerning the play of the game must also be received by March 1, 2009.

______________

Election of the Executive Committee

The members of the Executive Committee shall be elected by team representatives at the annual meeting of the Association.

Each officer shall be elected for a term of 2 years.

1. President - even years.

2. First Vice President - even years

3. Second Vice President - odd years.

4. Secretary - even years

5. Treasurer - odd years.

6. Commissioner - odd years.

This being an odd year, nominations and self-nominations are being accepted for the positions of:

Second Vice President, Treasurer and Commissioner

To be included on the proxy ballot for publication to the membership on March 15, all nominations and statements of qualifications must be received before March 15

Team Admins!!

Team rosters and team representative contact information needs to be entered in your team roster section. This is important for teams to contact you for tournaments. Please take care of this matter. - Administration

IMPORTANT: NEW! WSUSA Certificate of Insurance request procedure.

The Atlantic North Regional Quad Rugby Tournament was held at the Boo Williams Sportsplex in Hampton on February 13^th and 14^th. The teams in attendance were the New York Warriors, Northeast Passage Wildcats (NEP), Magee Eagles A, Magee Eagles B and East Coast Cripplers hosting. The bad weather in the Northeast and the South created some havoc in travel. Many teams were short on players and even the refs had a hard time with cancelled flights and rescheduled flights. Many thanks to Bob Lopez who worked tirelessly refereeing every game over the weekend.

Saturday morning started out with some snow, but the weather didn’t stop the games. Magee B and NEP had the first game with NEP running a squad of only four players. NEP kept up the pace with Magee B throughout the first half, but Magee B pulled ahead keeping a sizable lead for the rest of the game.

The East Coast Cripplers were really on their game this weekend, defeating NEP and Magee B on Saturday and Magee A and New York on Sunday. However, the wins didn’t come easy. Three of the four games were neck in neck for most of the entire games with both teams working hard to score. As always New York and ECC put on a great show for the crowd matching point for point. The Cripplers made good solid hits and always seemed to be in the right place at the right time. For the first time in the team’s history, they were undefeated throughout the entire tournament, earning their first, First Place win in a tournament.

The Sportsplex where the tournament was held had 8 full size courts and even an indoor track. The community came out in full force to cheer on all the players. At times there were well over 250 spectators. ECC is looking forward to being featured in a full length article in the Virginian Pilot newspaper later this spring. A photographer and a reporter were present the entire weekend, with the photographer taking thousands of shots of all the games. Both have been closely following ECC since last October even attending most practices.

All-in-all it was a great weekend at a great facility, with good food, sensational friends and some dangerously crazy awesome quadrugby fun.

To see pictures of ECC verses NEP, go to http://www.photoshow.com/watch/zm6it6JV

Scores
Magee Eagles B	51	NEP Wildcats	35
Magee Eagles A	54	New York Warriors	46
NEP Wildcats	26	East Coast Cripplers	55
New York Warriors	40	Magee Eagles B	48
Magee Eagles A	26	NEP Wildcats	18
East Coast Cripplers	49	Magee Eagles B	42
East Coast Cripplers	50	Magee Eagles A	49
NEP Wildcats	0	New York Warriors	1
Magee Eagles B	0	Magee Eagles A	1
New York Warriors	55	East Coast Cripplers	58

Results

1^st Place East Coast Cripplers

2^nd Place Magee Eagles

3^rd Place Magee Eagles

4^th Place New York Warriors

5^th Place North East Passage

All Tournament Low Pointer A.J. Nanayakkara, Magee A

All Tournament Mid Pointer Eric Anderson, Magee B

All Tournament Mid Pointer Kevin Crombie, East Coast Cripplers

All Tournament High Pointer Steve McGuire, East Coast Cripplers

All Tournament Sportsmanship George Taborsky, New York Warriors

All Tournament MVP Eric Ingram, East Coast Cripplers

Player's Corner