2004 North American Cup

Our national wheelchair rugby team is now down in Birmingham, Alabama, at the 2nd annual North American Cup.  This event is part of the "America Series" that is organized by U.S. Paralympics, and it has expanded this year to include new teams.

This year's version of the NAC has the Brits and the Germans coming to the land of grits, along with the two North American heavyweights in the sport.  GB is ranked 4th in the world, while the steadily improving Germans are #7.  All four teams will again meet in Vancouver next week, and in Athens in September at the Paralympic Games.  There are also top ranked wheelchair basketball teams here from AUS, CAN, GBR, and the hosts from the US.

The format over the next few days will see us play all three national teams today, followed by final games tomorrow. There will be no cross-over game, so in order to get to the final, we'll have to place 1st or 2nd in the pool.

Things started off awkwardly for the Canadian rugby team upon arrival in the States, with one passport vanishing into thin air, and then our medical kit following suit, as it took several extra for the fully-loaded medkit to appear at our Birmingham hotel, with most of the contents missing when it finally wheeled it's way back in to our lives.  Much of the $1000+ contents were re-purchased in Birmingham, but other things will have to be re-acquired once we again hit Canadian soil.  However, on the bright side, we're getting pretty good at filling out airline claim forms, since our chairs routinely get crushed en route to our tournaments.

On the court side of things, we had one good and one bad practice in preparation for our first game, and the bad practice was re-enacted on the court in the game against Germany, with a two-sided turnover fest giving the game to the Germans.

You can check out the scores from the tournament, courtesy of John Bishop's speedy fingers.

Wendy Gumbert, one of the staff from the US team, wrote a piece on the USQRA Forum about their first game of the tournament, where they shrugged off the GB team by four goals.

Our next game starts at 14:00 local time, when we run into the Brits, followed by a showdown against the host country at 18:00.  We'll pretty much have to win both of these games to get in to the final, which is scheduled to go at 18:30 tomorrow.

Our second game has now finished, and the Brits took us 38-36.  Ashe and Collins are looking fast on the floor, and we were playing catch-up for much of the game.

The coaching staff is having a meeting with the athletes now to address some of the areas where we need work, but it's better to draw out those things now than it would be for them to surface in Athens.

All is well - sometimes a loss can reap more benefits than a win - it's all in what you learn from the experience.