The San Antonio Scorchers quad rugby team wrapped up a successful season by reaching the USQRA National Championships in Salt Lake City, Utah April 3-5. The Scorchers entered the tournament seeded eleventh in a field of twelve of the top teams in the nation. We earned the respect of both the spectators and our competition in hard fought loses to higher seeded teams. The team won when it counted, finishing eleventh.
In order to reach the National Championships, the Scorchers had finished third in the South Central Sectionals in Birmingham, Alabama March 6-8. We pulled off the upsets of the tournament by annihilating the higher seeded Arizona Slam and defeating the long time rival, third seed, Colorado Highlanders in a close battle. Along with the team’s National Championship berth the weekend ended with team member Robert Ramos being named to the All-Tournament team.
The Scorchers prepared for post season play by competing in tournaments in Arizona, Georgia, and Houston. Team member Joby Falk collected All-Tournament honors in Arizona, before moving to California later in the season. The Scorchers raised money throughout the year to fund the expensive travel arrangements required to compete in the seasons tournaments. The team would like to thank all of the individuals and businesses that supported us during the past year. We would especially like to thank HEB, and their CEO Fully Klingman, who team member Donnie Legnon had the fortune of sitting next to on the flight home from Alabama, for their sizable donation. The donation from HEB along with donations from Warm Springs, Rehab in Motion, Alamo Mobility and several anonymous donors enabled the team’s travel to Nationals. We would also like to thank the Express News for their front page picture and article about the team.
The sport of wheelchair rugby, or quad rugby, is a full contact wheelchair sport. The game was invented by quadriplegics for quadriplegics with the idea of enabling those individuals to compete in an athletic team sport. The Scorchers goals are to promote the development of wheelchair rugby for quadriplegic athletes, to educate athletes, to improve their lives and, of course, to compete at the highest level. The team works out twice a week October through March, and we welcome anyone interested in playing either competitively or for recreation. If you are interested in playing, volunteering or helping the team financially please contact us at badquad@aol.com or call Donovan Fikes at (210) 362-4099.
The following links are to complete results from the tournaments that the Scorchers competed in this season. These results are located at the USQRA web site, as is a large amount of information about Quad Rugby, including history and rules.
USQRA National Championships - Salt Lake City, UT - April 3-5, 1998
South Central Sectionals - Birmingham, AL - March 6-8, 1998
TIRR Tournament - Houston, TX - February 20-22, 1998
Shepherd Showdown - Atlanta, GA - December 5-7, 1997
Arizona Desert Showdown - Mesa, AZ - Nov. 7-9, 1997
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Last updated 8 Apr 98