Walking into the upstairs basketball courts of the Hamel Recreation Center, visitors were greeted with an unusual mix of sounds. Instead of the normal sneaker squeaks and ball bounces, a low and distant rumble carried across the gym.
Then, with a fantastic crash, a terrific sound of metal upon metal, followed by an appreciative cheer from a small crowd.
A demolition derby? Sort of…
A clash of knights in their suits of armor? In a way…
The truth is, in fact, somewhere in between those things. Across the gym, fifty athletes in wheelchairs roll across the courts, with as much swagger as any basketball player.
Last weekend, the University of New Hampshire played home to a different kind of sport, with a very different kind of athlete. A sport affectionately known to its fans as "Murderball".
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At noon on Saturday morning, the Northeast Passage Wildcats are gathered in the lobby of the Whittemore Center, waiting for the lacrosse practice-taking place on the courts upstairs to finish. Around the lobby, the typical assortment of athletic gear, gym bags and volleyballs, are piled with more unique equipment, such as spare wheels and power tools.
The Northeast Passage Wildcats are only in their second year of existence, but they are already an extremely popular part of the Northeast Passage program, which provides disability related health promotion and adapted spots programs to the New England disabled community.
The Wildcats came to Durham in 2006 after two other New England Quad Rugby clubs, Maine's Casco Bay Navigators and the Boston Pitbulls, decided to merge and meet each other in the middle to form one, regional team. They now practice once a week at the Hamel Recreation Center, and travel to tournaments on weekends. Prior to hosting the UNH Tournament, the Wildcats traveled to events in Connecticut and Florida. The Durham tournament, promoted as "Rugby Rampage", will host teams from New York, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Connecticut and Philadelphia.
The players run through all ages, from 15 to 45 and skill levels, and the teams are all co-ed. Currently, there are 15 players on the Wildcat roster, including two with ties to the University of New Hampshire.
Nate Loomis, 28, graduated with a degree in English in May and is a long time Durham resident; he graduated from Oyster River High School in 1997. It was in 1998, while body surfing during a family trip to the Caribbean, that Nate broke his neck after a rogue wave slammed him into the ocean floor.
Loomis had been involved with Northeast Passage for years, but only recently became involved in the rugby program.
"They've been inviting me for years to try it out," said Loomis. "As soon as you go watch one of these things, they're going to put you in a chair. They're not going to let you sit in the sideline."
Michael Wright, 20, is currently enrolled at the University as a freshman. When he was just 1 year old, a car accident took the use of his legs.
"I love it, I can't get enough of it," said Wright, who also just started playing rugby last fall. "Getting out there and hitting somebody, making big plays, I just can't get enough"
Though they are the team's rookies, both men are enjoying their experience with the team so far. They work out with each other two times a week in Durham, using the training facilities provided by the University.
"I think the best thing really is the camaraderie," said Loomis. "You learn so much form each other and, not just about rugby, but everyday stuff as well"
Their teammates have recognized their efforts as well. Veteran rugby player and team manager Bill Bouchard, 45 of Lewiston, Maine, is excited about the young blood that has come to his team.
"Nate and Mike came in here full steam ahead and work their butts off and advanced incredibly for one season," he said "Mike went to a clinic early in the season and came back with a lot of knowledge and Nate's been working his a** off."
Back in the lobby, some of the players are in their everyday wheelchairs, while others have already transferred themselves to their game chairs. The rugby chairs are customized to player that sits in them, and are built to suit its owner's skills. Small and fast players, who are typically scorers, have short chairs and rounded off fronts that cannot snag on other chairs. The bigger, slower defensive players have longer chairs so they can take up more space and impeded the progress of an offensive drive.
Loomis who has a larger build than most players on the team, is a member of the defensive line when he is on the court. "We do all the dirty work, hitting people and getting in the way," he says.
The customized rugby chairs have six wheels. Two of them are on the sides of the chair and are probably a rugby chair's most striking features. The large wheels used for steering and propulsion. The tops of the wheels are slanted inward towards the player and the spokes are covered with metal or Plexiglas plates for protection. The plates on the wheels of the veteran Wildcats are covered with dents and scratches from past impacts with opponents. Underneath the chair, four rollerblade wheels that move independently and allow for tight spins and direction changes.
"It makes all the difference in the world you get into a chair that's made for you, said Bouchard. "It makes pushing a breeze."
In the corner of the lobby, Jim Loomis, Nate's father and team equipment manager, takes a power saw to a chair, trying to remove a plate that he learned made the chair illegal to play with. Later, during the tournament, Jim and his pit crew will have to fix wheelchairs on the fly, replacing broken wheels or popped tires with speed and precision in order to get the team's best players back into the game.
The practice upstairs gets out and one-by-one the players make their way up to the basketball court in the Rec Center's single elevator.
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