Two days have now wrapped up in Birmingham, with Team Canada coming through with a clean record in pool play, defeating the Kentucky TNT by 9, Denver by 7, and the defending USQRA national champs Texas Stampede by 2.

In the crossover, we met our determined hosts, the Lakeshore Demolition, who are this year augmented by Kiwi three pointer Dan Buckingham, who seems to be fitting in well with the Demolition's regular crew of solid team members, including US Parlaympic team deuces Kirkland and Lujano.

This creates a re-match with Texas, who are led by longtime US national and Paralympic team member 3.5 Steve Pate, along with 3.0 Mark Zupan, 1.0 Norm Lyduch, and Kiwi import Gerry Tinker, who is a deuce.

Both teams in the bronze medal match are coached by national team coaches from the rival US and Canadian teams, so it's going to be a bang-up game on Sunday in Birmingham with veteran players who know each other well. The gold medal game will feature the hometeam Demolition against the Pheonix Heat, who won last week's major tournament in Tampa.

An interesting read can once again be found on the Lakeshore site...

Yesterday was a Test Match day down in Birmingham, Alabama. Our team set up a 3-country round robin test match series which included games against the GB and Kiwi national teams.  All teams are down in that city preparing for the Demolition Derby. We played all players on our roster, trying different lines and options, and were competitive with both teams but came up on the short side of the scoreboard, losing by about two goals per game.

Team Canada had our big hitter Mike Whitehead back for this event.  He had earlier played at the Coloplast International for his US-based team, the Hoveround Gunners.  The Gunners did better than their seeding, moving up to 5th from their seeded position of 6th place.

At the Coloplast International, where we placed 3rd, our team consisted of:

0.5 PARADIS, Daniel
1.0 BACON, Mike
1.0 HIRSCHFIELD, Trevor
1.0 PUBLICOVER, Gordon
1.5 SCHMÜTZ, Erika
1.5 SIMARD, Patrice (won the award for the Best 1.5 at the tournament)
2.0 LAROCQUE, Martin
2.0 LUANGKHAMDENG, Say
2.0 ROBINSON, Trevor
2.0 WILLSIE, David ©
3.0 CHAN, Ian © (won the award for the Best 3.0 at the tournament)
3.0 LAVOIE, Fabien
3.0 NORDING, Dale

while at the Demolition Derby, we will have the following program members suit up for the National Team:

0.5 PARADIS, Daniel
1.0 BACON, Mike
1.0 PUBLICOVER, Gordon
1.5 SCHMÜTZ, Erika
1.5 SIMARD, Patrice
2.0 LAROCQUE, Martin
2.0 LUANGKHAMDENG, Say
2.0 ROBINSON, Trevor
2.0 WILLSIE, David ©
3.0 CHAN, Ian ©
3.0 LAVOIE, Fabien
3.0 WHITEHEAD, Mike

Expectant father (for the second time) Jared Funk was not able to join us for this trip, nor was team co-captain Garett Hickling.  Deuces Trevor 'Crash' Robinson from Winnipeg and Say Luangkhamdeng from Surrey, BC, both from our National Squad, came in to fill out the rest of our team.

At the Coloplast tournament, the #5 seeded team earned top spot, to the surprise of many.  Tournament MVP Shinichi Shimakawa continues to shine, and is arguably the fastest wheelchair rugby player in the world.  Shin stars on the Japanese national team, which is ranked 8th in the world at this time, and on the Blitz, the #1 ranked team in Japan.

At the test match games, all national teams were stronger than they would be at either the Tampa or Birmingham tournaments, as all the foreign imports were able to play for their national teams during the test matches, rather than their US based teams.  With Whitey playing for Canada, the Kiwis had Gerry Tinker (2.0) and Dan Buckingham (3.0) back on the team, while the Brits were able to use Alan Ash (at his international PPS classification of 2.5 rather than his USQRA 2.0 class).  Buckingham makes the Lakeshore Demolition even stronger, while Tinker earned the import spot on defending USQRA national champion Texas Stampede.  Veteran Brit Alan Ash suits up for the Kentucky TNT, alongside veteran US national team member and perennial allstar at the 0.5 position, Eddie Crouch.

The competition should be somewhat more difficult, based on team rankings, at the Derby than at the Coloplast International.  Here is a comparison of the sets of opponents from those two events:

Coloplast Int - Team	IWRF Rank	USQRA Rank		Demolition Derby - Team	IWRF Rank	USQRA Rank
New Zealand	1	-		New Zealand	1	-
Canada	2	-		Canada	2	-
Great Britain	4	-		Great Britain	4	-
Texas Stampede	-	2		Lakeshore Demolition	-	1
Phoenix Heat	-	3		Texas Stampede	-	2
Hoveround Gunners	-	4		Phoenix Heat	-	3
Magee Eagles	-	9		Denver Harlequins	-	5
Tampa Generals	-	12		Kentucky TNT	-	10

In anticipation of the upcoming Demolition Derby tournament, which will feature it's toughest-ever set of competitors, here are a few links to articles on the subject:

- From the Lakeshore Foundation
- Another article from the Lakeshore site

Full results from day two at the Coloplast International are now posted on the CWSA site. It was not a banner day for our team, as it fell to both GB and Phoenix, setting up a bronze medal match with last year's USQRA Division 1 champions from Texas. The Stampede also lost in their match with Great Britian yesterday. For those game results check out the site.

This past weekend saw four different rugby tournaments wrap up, with Canadian players involved in three of those events.

While many of the Canadian national team program members were in Florida for the Knock and Roll, others were taking care of business closer to home, with the 1st Annual Ontario Winter Paralympic Championships taking place in Huntsville, Ontario.

On the west coast, Dave Willsie and his latest team, the California Quake, competed in the Quake's Shake 'n Bake tourney.

Our friends in Maine, who often come to Canada to compete (hey, with their weather, they're almost Canadians anyway) competed in the Brockton Brawl, a new event in Brockton, Massachusetts. The top-rated team at this tourney is Philadelphia's Magee Eagles, who are ranked 9th in the USQRA.

Results on the first two events are posted on our site, and the results of the Shake 'n Quake and the Brockton Brawl should be posted to the USQRA site fairly soon.

Athletes involved in our Florida Project helped their South Florida Team to earn 3rd place at the Knock and Roll as the tournament wrapped up for another year. The Rattlers beat the Denver Harlequins 43-40 in a game that I hope to have some feedback on tomorrow when the players head back to base.

Rattlers earning Best-in-Class honours include Patrice Simard (1.5) and team co-captain Ian Chan (3.0), with Patrice earning this award at this same tournament for the 4th consecutive year.

The Canadian contingent on the South Florida Rattlers are currently in the middle of a six-team tournament in centrally located Jupiter, Florida, at the 6th annual Knock and Roll tournament.

Thus far they've had 2 wins and 2 losses, keeping their #4 seeding throughout. Today they face the #3 ranked team from Denver, which was upset earlier by the Tampa Generals. However, the ever-improving Denver Harlequins knocked off the #2 ranked Hoveround Gunners, and had a 2-point loss to the top-ranked USQRA team from Lakeshore.

The Rattlers beat the Tampa Generals soundly yesterday, by a comfortable 11-goal margin, and will be aiming to overcome the team that beat them by a 3-goal margin at last year's Knock and Roll tournament.

It's great to see teams cross the country to face one another, and all teams are quite happy to have Denver at this Florida tournament. I suspect that these two teams will be facing each other once again at Denver's Mile High Classic, which takes place in one months time.

Ok, the athletes are starting to settle in to their new accommodations in South Florida, where the Canadian team holds it's "Florida Project" high performance training camp for the first few months of the calendar year.

Among the tournaments that our athletes are getting prepared for are:

Jan. 13-15 - 2006 Knock 'n Roll, a 6-team national tournament in Jupiter, FL (Most of the Canadians are playing for the South Florida Rattlers, which is 2/3rds Canuck, and coached by our High Performance Coordinator, Marco Dispaltro)

Among the opposing teams we will meet (and their latest USQRA club rankings) are:
#1 Lakeshore, #4 Hoveround, #5 Denver, #12 Tampa, & #14 Great Lakes Storm

Canadian national team program members (and their homes/home clubs) in this tournament are:

1.5 - SCHMÜTZ, Erika (Whitby, ON, Toronto Barking Spiders)
1.5 - SIMARD, Patrice (Québec, QC, Québec Impact)
2.0 - LUANGKHAMDENG, Say (Surrey, BC, BC Bandits)
2.0 - LIZOTTE, Raymond (Québec, QC, Québec Impact)
3.0 - CHAN, Ian (Richmond, BC, BC Bandits)
3.0 - LAVOIE, Fabien (Québec, QC, Québec Impact)

3.0 - WHITEHEAD, Mike (Bradenton, FL / Windsor, ON, London Annihilators, playing for Dave Willsie's former team, the Hoveround Gunners)


Jan. 20-22 - 2006 Coloplast International, an 8-team international event in Tampa, FL

Participating canadians from our national team program include:

0.5 - PARADIS, Daniel (Québec, QC, Québec Impact)
1.0 - BACON, Mike (Saskatoon, SK, Sasksquash)
1.0 - HIRSCHFIELD, Trevor (Parksville, BC, BC Bandits)
1.0 - PUBLICOVER, Gordon (Halifax, NS, Nova Scotia Spokebusters)
1.5 - SCHMÜTZ, Erika (Whitby, ON, Toronto Barking Spiders)
1.5 - SIMARD, Patrice (Québec, QC, Québec Impact)
2.0 - LAROCQUE, Martin (Embrun, ON, Ottawa Stingers)
2.0 - LUANGKHAMDENG, Say (Surrey, BC, BC Bandits)
2.0 - ROBINSON, Trevor (Winnipeg, MB, Team Manitoba)
2.0 - WILLSIE, David © (London, ON, London Annihilators)
3.0 - CHAN, Ian (Richmond, BC, BC Bandits)
3.0 - LAVOIE, Fabien (Québec, QC, Québec Impact)
3.0 - NORDING, Dale (Edmonton, AB, Alberta Steel Wheels)

3.0 - WHITEHEAD, Mike (Bradenton, FL / Windsor, ON, London Annihilators, playing for the Hoveround Gunners)

Teams that we will be facing include:
(#1-World) NZL, (#4-World) GBR, (#2-in-USA) Texas, (#3-in-USA) Phoenix, (#4-in-USA) Hoveround, (#12-in-USA) Tampa, & (#9-in-USA) Magee Eagles.

Jan 27-29 - 2006 Demolition Derby, an 8-team international tournament in Birmingham, AL

In this international tournament, we have:

0.5 - PARADIS, Daniel (Québec, QC, Québec Impact)
1.0 - BACON, Mike (Saskatoon, SK, Sasksquash)
1.0 - PUBLICOVER, Gordon (Halifax, NS, Nova Scotia Spokebusters)
1.5 - SCHMÜTZ, Erika (Whitby, ON, Toronto Barking Spiders)
1.5 - SIMARD, Patrice (Québec, QC, Québec Impact)
2.0 - LAROCQUE, Martin (Embrun, ON, Ottawa Stingers)
2.0 - LUANGKHAMDENG, Say (Surrey, BC, BC Bandits)
2.0 - ROBINSON, Trevor (Winnipeg, MB, Team Manitoba)
2.0 - WILLSIE, David © (London, ON, London Annihilators)
3.0 - CHAN, Ian (Richmond, BC, BC Bandits)
3.0 - LAVOIE, Fabien (Québec, QC, Québec Impact)
3.0 - WHITEHEAD, Mike (Bradenton, FL / Windsor, ON, London Annihilators)

Some of the same teams will be back, but others we'll be meeting for the first time this season, including:
(#1-World) NZL, (#4-World) GBR, (#1-in-USA) Lakeshore, (#2-in-USA) Texas, (#3-in-USA) Phoenix, (#5-in-USA) Denver, (#10-in-USA) Kentucky TNT

Complete rosters and schedules for all three tournaments appear on the links above.